Ruined
by addison116
Summary: Set after "Too Far Gone," Daryl and Beth are on the run, fighting to survive and fighting to find the others. But they find that they could never have imagined the obstacles they would face; obstacles that will test their faith and humanity, as well as themselves.
1. Chapter 1

Ch.1

"We gotta go, Beth. We gotta go."

She heard the words but they sounded like they were coming from a hundred miles away. She knew that he was right, that they couldn't stay here any longer. But every inch of her being wanted to stay here, wanted to look for Maggie and Glenn and Judith. She wanted to find her father's body. She was frozen in place, and she could feel his eyes boring into her. She knew that if she didn't move soon he would force her to. So reluctantly she turned around and they started running.

She wasn't sure how long they had been running; her mind was racing a million miles an hour, and as much as she tried to push the thoughts away her mind kept thinking of her father. She barely even noticed when Daryl slowed down to a walking pace. She hadn't realized how out of breath she was, and she was now thankful that he decided they had run enough.

They were on a dirt road, which was now mostly overgrown with grass and weeds from the lack of travelers. She wasn't sure where they were, but she assumed this was the same road that led out of the prison, but for all she knew they could be miles away from their former home or just a few hundred yards. Daryl kept up a good pace, but they walked in complete silence, neither of them risking a glance at the other. The silence allowed her mind to wander back to Maggie. Was she with Glenn? Were they on the bus? Did she even make it out alive? And the question that scared her the most, would she ever see Maggie again?

Her chest became tight and she felt as if she had a ton of bricks lying on her. Walking suddenly became hard as her breathing began to waver and she thought of her father and Maggie. She didn't want to cry, she was supposed to be strong, she didn't cry anymore. But despite her efforts to keep her tears at bay, they began streaming down her face, eventually becoming loud sobs wracking her body.

She had stopped walking and Daryl had noticed. He turned around and through the tears Beth could see him looking at her. She hated being so weak when he needed her to be strong. Before she knew it Daryl had walked over to her and pulled her close to his chest, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her. She thought about pushing away from him, but his embrace was comforting.

"Shhh, it's gonna be okay. I promise." His voice was soft, quiet, soothing.

He let her cry into his chest, her tears soaking his shirt. Even though he didn't say much and Daryl wouldn't have been the first person she would have chosen to hold her while she cried, he was all she had right now. Her sobs eventually dwindled to silent tears, but she let him continue holding her.

"You okay now?"

She didn't look at him and didn't speak, she just shook her head yes.

"The sun's going to be setting soon; we need to find someplace to stay for the night. Not on the road, too dangerous."

She looked at him confused. If they weren't staying on the road then where were they going to go? Her heart sank when she realized they were going to be staying in the woods. Sure they had been in the woods before, but she had always hated it. And if the others were to come down this road would they know to look for them in the woods? She cautiously followed behind Daryl as he stepped off of the road into the trees, slowly disappearing into the unknown.

They walked for what she guessed to be about an hour before it became completely dark, the sun replaced by the moon. They hadn't seen any shelter and she was wondering where they would sleep. All that surrounded them were trees, and thankfully they hadn't seen any walkers since leaving the prison.

"We'll stay here tonight. It's as good a place as any," Daryl said, gesturing to the ground around them. "I'll get a fire started, it might get cold tonight. You should get some sleep; been through a lot today, got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Beth looked around her trying to figure out where to lie. She decided on a spot between two close trees. She curled up in a ball, watching silently as Daryl kneeled down and started to make a fire. She watched the flames dance, the embers floating high into the air and then falling to the ground as ash. Her eyes were heavy and she slowly drifted to sleep, and when the line between reality and dream began to blur, the nightmares began.

* * *

Daryl hadn't been sure what to do. He had felt her suddenly stop walking, slowly falling behind until he stopped. When he turned around he saw tears falling down her face, and then she started crying hysterically, her sobs visibly shaking her small frame. He was surprised that she had made it this long; he had expected that she would have broken down as soon as they were out of sight of the prison. His heart sank in his chest for her. He had never been the comforting kind. Sure, he had been there when people broke down, but there had always been someone else to comfort them. Now it was just him, and he knew that he couldn't just let her stand there.

He had seen people do it on TV, and had seen boyfriends do it when their girlfriends began to cry, so he figured it must be the proper thing to do. He walked over to her and dragged her to his chest, feeling her tense under his unsuspecting touch. He could feel as the tears began to soak through his shirt, but he would take a tear spattered t-shirt if it meant it would make her feel better.

When he felt her body relax and heard her sobs subside he talked again. "You okay now?" She didn't respond, but shook her head yes. "The sun's going to be setting soon; we need to find someplace to stay for the night. Not on the road, too dangerous."

He saw her blood-shot eyes widen at mention of the woods. He knew she hated the woods, they scared her, but he couldn't risk staying out in the open on the road. He didn't know if any of The Governor's loyalists were still alive, but if they were he didn't want to run into them, so the woods were his best option. Besides, he liked the woods more, they were like a second home to him, and he knew that he could keep them alive if they were in the woods. If any of their group walked on the road he would be able to track them, so he wasn't worried of missing them pass by.

He had hoped that they would be able to find a little cabin or shed, someplace they could take shelter, but he knew it wasn't likely. So when the sun had finally set he decided that where they were was the best they were going to get. He looked over and saw Beth, dark circles starting to form beneath her eyes. She looked exhausted, both physically and emotionally; she needed sleep.

"We'll stay here tonight. It's as good a place as any. I'll get a fire started, it might get cold tonight. You should get some sleep; been through a lot today, got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Daryl went and gathered a few sticks. He was thankful that he still had a lighter on him; it would make it a lot easier to start a fire. He knew that night would bring colder temperatures, and they only had the clothes on their backs. As he meticulously began to start a fire he felt the onset of hunger; they would need to find some food tomorrow. When he was satisfied that the fire would last through the night he took a spot just across from Beth, his back leaning against a tree.

He decided to watch Beth instead of their surroundings. He saw her eyes follow the orange embers as they fell to the ground. He watched as her eyes grew heavy as she fought off sleep. Then he saw them close and saw as the rising of her chest slowed, and he knew that she was finally asleep.

After an hour or two, piercing screams jolted him. He looked over and saw Beth. Fearing that a walker had gotten her he rushed to her side, surprised to find her eyes sealed shut. She was screaming in her sleep. He knew that the loud noise would draw in any nearby walkers, but he wasn't sure how to wake her. Slowly he took his hand and placed it over her mouth; he was startled when her big blue eyes shot open, looking straight into his. Her breathing became ragged, and she was still trying to scream.

"Beth, Beth. It's me, it's Daryl. You're alright, you were dreamin'. You're alright." He tried to keep his voice calm, not wanting to scare her anymore than she already was.

He saw as recognition registered in her eyes and he removed his hand from her mouth. Her breathing began to become regular again, but she was still scared. Her eyes were brimming with tears and he could almost make out her pulse beneath her skin. She didn't take her eyes off of him; it was like they were glued on him. Without thinking he pulled her in, just like he had done earlier that day, and the tears began to fall.

"It was just a dream, Beth, nothing that can hurt ya'." He knew what he was saying wasn't true. He had a pretty good idea what she had been dreaming about. Seeing her father die was surely imprinted in her memory for the rest of her life, and he could only imagine that she saw it on an endless loop every time she closed her eyes. "You want to talk about it?"

He felt her nod her head no. They stayed like that the rest of the night, Daryl's arms wrapped around Beth, holding her close. And while the tears stopped, she never fell back asleep; she simply traced circles on his pant leg.

**Author's Note: I am not positive if I am going to continue this story. This chapter can be considered as testing the waters, a way for me to see if you guys like it or not, and whether or not I should continue. As I mentioned in the Ch.12 Author's Note of "A Fighting Chance," "Ruined" is going to be dark and twisted. It is going to deal with some pretty heavy and emotional subjects, and will follow Daryl and Beth on their journey. So, please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Ch.2

He felt the hot sun glaring down on him and opened his eyes. He must have fallen asleep sometime during the night, and he hoped that Beth had too. He looked around their camp for Beth, eyes still adjusting to the brightness, and found her sitting across from him, poking the ashes of the fire with a stick. By the looks of it she hadn't gotten any sleep. The circles that had started forming under her eyes yesterday were five shades darker and she looked paler. Her posture was slumped, which made her look frail and weak.

"You get any sleep?" He was still hopeful that maybe she had closed her eyes for even a half hour, but all hope vanished when she shook her head no. "We'll head back to the road, try to find some food and shelter."

As Daryl gathered his crossbow Beth just stayed by the absent fire. She finally got up when he motioned for her to follow. He knew the direction they had come from, so he wasn't worried about finding the road again. After about a half hour Beth still hadn't said anything. He was getting worried about her.

"Yah' know, when Merle died, I didn't know what to do." He looked back to her trying to gauge her reaction, but she kept her head focused on the ground. "He was the only family I had; wasn't much, but he was still my brother. When I saw him like that, as a walker, I was mad. Mad at him for leaving like that and mad at The Governor for doing that to him."

They walked a couple of more minutes, neither of them saying anything. Daryl was trying to get her to talk, but it wasn't working.

"Beth, I can't even begin to imagine what you're goin' through, but I need you to know that it's alright to cry, that I'm here for yah' and you can talk to me." He risked a look back at her, and while she still didn't say anything, her eyes were looking at him, taking in every word he was saying.

They walked another fifteen minutes. They were almost to the road, about another half hour would get them there. Beth was still trailing behind Daryl but he could hear her soft footsteps so he knew that he hadn't lost her.

"Whenever I close my eyes I see him." The voice reached him as barely a whisper, soft and laced with sadness. "And when I fall asleep I see The Governor and what he did." Her voice was beginning to crack, and he knew that she was about to cry, but this time he didn't pull her to his chest. "Do the nightmares ever stop?"

She had stopped walking, and so had he. He turned to face her, happy to see that she had kept herself from crying. He thought about what to say. He could lie to her and tell her that it gets better, but the truth was it never would, you just get used to it.

"I'm not gonna' lie Beth, you're never going to forget it. The nightmares, they might go away, the memories won't." He hated being so brutally honest with her when he knew that she wanted to hear something different. "I'm gonna' keep you safe. We'll find the others, and everything will be fine. I promise."

She started walking again, and he waited for her to be by his side before he began walking. They were at the road within a few minutes. From what he could see, there hadn't been anyone walking through there in the last few days. They walked down the road with no trouble; they had been lucky not to see any walkers, and Daryl figured that was because they had all been drawn to the prison.

In the distance he saw what looked to be a car. When they got closer he could see that the windows were cracked and the metal was rusted. He wondered what had become of the driver. The keys were in the ignition still, making his heart jump with excitement. But the excitement quickly faded when the car wouldn't start, and by the looks of it, he assumed it was out of gas.

While Daryl had been busy trying to start the car, Beth had been rummaging through the items left behind. There wasn't much, and barely any of it was useful. There was one blanket, but the real prize was a backpack with three cans of food and five bottles of water in it and a can opener. He knew it wouldn't last long, but they needed any food that they could find.

Daryl heard a noise that caught his attention. He had heard it too many times before to mistake it for anything else. The low, guttural moaning from hunger and a need for human flesh; the light sound of a breaking twig and shuffling feet. Beth hadn't realized the sounds yet, and he wasn't going to wait to see if she did.

With one swift move he grabbed Beth's arms, careful not to hurt her, but strong enough that she couldn't break free. He put his finger to his lip and hushed her, telling her to be quiet. He pointed in the direction the noise was coming from, and through the trees he could see the walkers approaching, and there were more of them than he could count. Beth grabbed the backpack and shoved the blanket in it, and then they started running.

Beth started running further down the road, and Daryl followed at first, but it quickly became apparent that they weren't going to make it if they stayed on the road as the walkers were already blocking their path up ahead. He grabbed her arm once again, this time not being as gentle, and yanked her towards the woods. She stumbled a little, but Daryl helped her regain her balance before letting go of her.

They ran deeper and deeper into the woods, and this time Daryl knew that finding the road again would be a hopeless cause. The walkers would erase any tracks they had left, and the tracks of the walkers would be too numerous and aimless to follow. The walkers were right behind them, practically biting at their heels. And then all of a sudden something caught their attention, diverting their hungry gaze from Daryl and Beth. Slowly but surely they all began to head in the opposite direction. He wasn't sure what it was, but he figured it was a deer or some other animal, and Daryl was thankful for it.

They kept running though. Daryl wanted to make sure they were as far away as possible from the walkers. He didn't want to run into them again. When he felt safe he slowed his pace.

"Time to take a break," he said, sitting down on a nearby tree stump. "Still got the water in there?"

Beth reached into the backpack and handed Daryl one of the waters. He eyed her when she didn't grab one for herself, but brushed it off as her still being scared from the herd they had just managed to avoid.

"We should probably keep moving, best to be as far away as possible from those things." He stood up from the stump and started walking.

"Aren't we going to go back to the road?"

"Nope, too dangerous. Besides, no way to know where the road is now. The walkers erased any of our tracks." When he looked at her she looked mad, like he had just said something to upset her. Then he realized that he had. "Don't worry, we'll get to the meet up spot."

He hadn't realized how long they had been walking. When he looked up at the sun it looked like it was about to start setting, and he knew that they should try to get a fire started and get something to eat. He knew that the herd of walkers wouldn't be able to reach them overnight, but tomorrow was a different story.

"Can you collect some sticks? I'll get a fire started." He looked into the backpack and grabbed one of the cans. Beans. Not the best, but they would do the trick. "I'll cook these tonight."

As he carefully opened the can with the can opener, Beth went off to find sticks. He was careful to keep an eye on her, making sure she didn't venture too far. She came back with an armful of sticks and placed them at his feet. He easily assembled the fire and began cooking the beans. He looked through the backpack and was thankful when he found a spoon.

When the beans were done he ate some of them, being sure to leave plenty for Beth. He handed the can to Beth. He watched as she just poked around at them with the spoon, not bothering to actually eat any.

"You need to eat. You're already getting too skinny." His words obviously didn't reach her because she placed the can on the ground and curled up into a ball.

She needed to get her strength, and she needed rest. He suspected that something big was ahead of them, but he didn't want to scare her with what he knew when it could turn out to be nothing. Earlier that day he had begun to think that someone was watching them, and he was almost certain that it wasn't anyone from their group. And if it wasn't anyone they knew, there was no way of telling if they were friendly.

**Author's Note: Once again, this chapter is just testing the waters to see what you guys think. Daryl and Beth have a lot ahead of them! Beth isn't in the best physical or mental state, and Daryl is becoming suspicious of their surroundings and who else could be there. Please leave a review to let me know what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.3

It was another sleepless night. She had tried to sleep, but after Daryl woke her up because she was screaming again, she didn't even try to close her eyes. She ended up just staring blankly into the night, her whole body numb from the nightmare. It was the exact same one from the previous night. It started with The Governor bringing her daddy and Michonne out. Rick going down to try to talk to him. Then Michonne's sword raised high in the air, and then swinging down to her daddy's neck. But in her dream she was frozen in place. She couldn't move, she couldn't scream; every inch of her was frozen. And then she watched as The Governor killed everyone else around her until Daryl woke her up.

When the sun started to rise she saw Daryl begin to stir. He had fallen asleep despite his feeble attempts to stay awake; at least one of them was able to get some much-needed rest. The half empty can of beans was still sitting infront of her, still untouched by her hands. The fire had gone out a few hours ago, and since she didn't know how to start a fire, there was no way for her to warm them back up for him.

She continued watching Daryl as he slowly woke up, his eyes darting straight to her with a worried expression and he opened his mouth to speak. "Any sleep?"

"No."

"Any walkers?"

"No."

He reached across the pile of ash and charred sticks to the can. He titled it back and she watched as he looked from the can to her, the worry on his ace becoming more and more apparent with every passing second.

"You didn't eat," he sounded disappointed.

"Not hungry."

"You haven't eaten anything in two days, Beth. You need to get something in you."

"I'm fine."

"Tell me that when you pass out."

She ignored his comment and decided to change the subject. "Are we going to head back to the road?"

"Ain't no point, chances of us finding our way back to it are slim to none. We're deep in the woods, and that herd of walkers could be waitin' for us." He started to get up and walked over to the backpack that was sitting a few feet from him.

"Then what are we going to do?"

"Keep moving the way we've been going. We'll get to the meet up spot."

"Do you even know what direction we're supposed to be heading?"

"Sort of. I got a little mixed up after the herd yesterday, but I'm pretty sure we should be heading that way," he said as he pointed straight ahead.

"I'll get our stuff together so we can head out."

"Not so fast," he said, turning from the backpack to her. He tossed her an unopened bottle of water, and Beth scrambled to catch it before it hit her in the face.

"I'm not thirsty."

"I don't care if you're not thirsty. You're drinking it."

Beth opened her mouth to say something defiant, but she was quickly cut off.

"We're not going anywhere until you drink some of that."

She looked from him to the bottle of water in her hands. She really wasn't thirsty, and she really didn't want to drink anything. Her eyes glanced back to Daryl and she could tell by the look on his face that she wasn't going to win this little fight. She began to open the water, defeated, and slowly put it to her mouth and took a little sip. Before she could even bring the bottle down all the way, Daryl had rushed over to her and pushed it back to her mouth.

"Uh-uh, you gotta' drink more than that. A little sip ain't gonna do you no good."

She took a mouthful this time, and when she saw that he still wasn't satisfied, she took a few more. The water sat heavy in her stomach, and in a way she hated him for making her drink it. But if it meant that they could start moving again, she would drink the water. She wanted to make it to the meet up spot as soon as possible. She desperately wanted to know if anyone else had survived, and most importantly, if Maggie had made it.

After Daryl was satisfied with how much water she had drank, he offered her beans, but she refused, so he quickly shoveled them in his mouth. Wasting food wasn't an option, and if she wasn't going to eat them, that only left Daryl. Once he had finished, they were on their way again, heading the same direction Daryl had pointed out.

Beth wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings, she wasn't even sure if Daryl was still by her side until he threw his arm out in front of her, stopping her from going any further. She looked up to see seven walkers beginning to surround them. It wasn't a large heard like yesterday, but there was no way of outrunning these ones.

"Get out your knife," he whispered, gently tugging at the sharp object attached to her belt.

He swung the crossbow off of his back and aimed it at the closest walker, shooting it dead. The death of that one walker alerted the others to their presence, and before she had time to think a walker was pulling at her arm. Daryl turned and stabbed it in the head with his knife before turning back to the walker just in arms reach of him.

Beth was struggling to get her knife out, her fingers fumbling with the button holding it in its holster. When she finally got it out she looked up and saw a walker heading towards her. She had killed them before, but killing them without the safety of the fence was a completely different thing. At the prison she didn't have to think, didn't have to contemplate the walker's next move or whether there was another approaching her from one of her blind spots.

She started backing away, not knowing what to do. She looked to Daryl, hoping he would come and help her, but he was taking down a walker and had another swiftly creeping up behind him. She tore her attention away from him and back to her current dilemma when she heard the snapping of teeth just inches away. The walker was right in front of her, and without thinking she stabbed the knife into its head.

Her relief was short lived, because before she knew it a walker who had snuck up from her left side was grabbing her arm. She tried to push it away, but the motion only caused her to fall to the ground, the weight of the walker nearly incapacitating her. Her knife had fallen from her hand, and she was frantically reaching for it. Her fingers could just touch the handle, but with the walker on top of her it was nearly impossible to reach any further. Her heart was pounding and her breathing was becoming more and more difficult as the weight of the walker shifted further up her body.

Her eyes swelled up with tears, making her vision blur and making it even more difficult to make out what the walker was doing and where her knife was. She decided to take a risk and with all the strength she had left in her gave the walker's head one big push back, and in the second it took the walker to regain it's composure, she had grabbed her knife and jarred it through the skull of the walker. Blood spattered on her face and clothes, and she felt as its body went limp on top of her.

She was pinned beneath it and couldn't get out. She wiggled around but to no avail. Any strength she had left was used with that final push, leaving her too weak to roll the thing off of her. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to catch her breath, and was relieved when the weight was lifted off of her. Opening her eyes she saw Daryl looking down at her, reaching his hand out to help her up. She took it, and when she got to her feet she was light headed. Her stomach ached and she felt queasy.

"You alright? You get bit?" Daryl grabbed her and looked her over, checking for any bites.

"No, I-I don't think so."

"You feelin' alright? You look a little pale." His eyebrows furrowed with concern when he looked at her.

"I'm fine."

She was panting, still finding it difficult to breath. The world was spinning, and her stomach churned. She rushed over to the nearest bush and threw up, collapsing to her knees. Daryl was quick to her side, holding her up as she began to vomit again. When she felt better she turned to face him, but kept her eyes from meeting his.

"You good now?"

"Yeah." She was embarrassed and could feel her cheeks grow flush.

"Can you stand?"

Beth shook her head yes and started to get to her feet. Daryl stayed close by her, fearing she would collapse again. Her head was pounding, but she felt better than she had a few minutes ago.

"You need to eat something. You have nothing in your stomach, you're too weak to fight…you're lucky there weren't more of them." Daryl paused, looking at Beth, a grin forming on his face. "You did good though. This your first time killin' a walker outside of the prison?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna' need to teach you better fighting skills, how to properly use a knife. But first you need to get cleaned up. We need to find a river or a lake."

**Author's Note: I just wanted to thank everyone who has read, favorited, followed and/or reviewed. Your support means so much to me! I have decided that I will continue with the story. I plan on posting another chapter tomorrow. But after that postings will become less frequent due to school, so I think it would be safe to say that you can expect about a chapter a week.**

**Once again, thank you for all of your support. I love reading your reviews!**


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

Daryl handed Beth the half empty bottle of water and was happy when she eagerly took it and drank until it was empty. She looked like hell. He couldn't quite figure out how she had managed to get so covered in blood. They needed to get her cleaned up, and he was hoping it wouldn't take them long to find someplace to do that.

They began trekking deeper into the woods, not bothering to acknowledge each other's presence until Daryl saw something in the distance. It was big and orange, and he instantly knew what it was. They were stumbling upon somebody else's campsite. He stopped and waited, watching to see if he could see any movement. When he felt safe that nobody was there, he started forward again, making sure to keep Beth behind him and out of sight of anybody who may be lingering in the tent.

The place was deserted. The only signs that life had ever been there were the rotting food and random items strewn around. These people must have left in a hurry, and Daryl suspected walkers were the cause of their abandonment. He saw Beth reaching to look inside of the tent and quickly rushed over to her and grabbed her wrist.

"You crazy? You don't know what's in there, could be a walker. Don't even have your knife out." He looked her straight in the eyes and then let go off her wrist, gently pushing her aside; guilt bubbling inside of him as he realized how harsh his words had sounded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Don't be sorry, just think next time."

He gingerly eased the zipper to the entrance of the tent down until he could get a good look inside. The smell that wafted out of the tent made him gag, and he could hear Beth do the same. She tried to peak around his shoulder to see what was causing the smell, but he purposely blocked her view. She didn't need to see what was in there.

"What is it?"

"Nothin', why don't you gather up the things around the camp that we can use."

He looked to her and could tell that she was about to protest, but one demanding glance stopped her, forcing her to go and do what she was told. His previous assumption that the former residents of this campsite had fled was wrong, because the tent told a completely different story. One glance in the tent told him that something horrible had happened, but he wasn't sure what. Blood covered every inch of the inside, and there were bits of flesh, which he assumed to be human, littering the ground. His first thought were walkers; it made sense, walkers ate and left very little behind. But that wouldn't explain how the tent was zipped, walkers don't zip things back up.

He brushed the thought from his mind and turned his attention to Beth, who was standing off to the side, waiting for him to be ready to go. He couldn't tell if she had really found anything, but she did have a pot in her hand, which would be useful for cooking things and boiling water. He was ready to get away from this horror show.

"Ready?" she asked, looking at him anxiously.

"Yeah, let's go."

On their walk she told him that she had found a few more bottles of water and cans of food, but he could tell by the excitement in her voice that the best find was the pot, which she kept tightly clutched in her hand. It was funny how such a simple thing could make her happy. Their conversation then turned to the tent and what had been inside, but it was mostly a one-sided conversation as he refused to let her know. He was thankful when he saw two squirrels scurry in their path, and he easily took them both down.

He heard a twig break far behind them, a sound that didn't reach Beth's ears. He didn't turn around to see what it was, but with the absence of shuffling feet and groans, he knew it wasn't a walker. If someone was following them he didn't want to let them know that he was becoming suspicious, at least not yet. He was broke from his thoughts when he heard Beth speak up.

"Look! A river!"

He could tell she was excited. "Good, ya' won't have to stink no more." He let out a laugh when he saw her expression.

"Shut up," she said as she gave him a little nudge and then took off running to the water.

"Don't go in yet, I need to make sure no walkers are hidin' under there."

She stopped dead in her tracks; she obviously hadn't thought of that. It made him wonder how she had survived this long. He approached the edge of the water and was surprised to see how clear it was. He could see almost 20 feet out and didn't see any walkers.

"You're good, just don't go too far. I'm gonna get a fire started. We can boil some of the water and refill the water bottles with it. I'll cook up the squirrel too." He saw her hesitate and couldn't for the life of him figure out why she wasn't readily jumping in the water. "What's wrong?"

"I don't have any clothes to change in to, and if I stay in wet clothes I'll freeze."

He thought it over and she was right. Night would set in before her clothes had a chance to dry. "We have a blanket don't we? Wrap yourself in that 'til your clothes dry." He saw her cheeks become red. But she started heading to the water. Daryl went to start making the fire, but he positioned himself to where he could still make out her form from his peripheral vision. He wanted to be able to see if a walker grabbed her.

His thoughts started to wander as he started cooking the squirrel he had killed earlier. His mind kept bringing him back to Hershel and the conversation he had had with him after The Governor attacked the prison a second time. While everyone else was relieved, thinking they had finally won the war, Hershel was still nervous. He had pulled him aside after the Woodbury people had arrived, making sure they were out of earshot of anyone else.

_"Daryl, can I have a word with you?"_ His voice had been calm, but Hershel always had a way of keeping himself calm, even when the worse was happening. _"Now I know The Governor's gone, and he could be gone for good. But I still have to worry. I have Maggie and Beth, and I can't let anything happen to them. Maggie, she can probably do just fine on her own, she's strong. But Beth is different, she cares too deeply, her emotions can get the best of her."_ Daryl just nodded in agreement, not sure where the conversation was going. _"I need you to promise me that if anything happens, and I don't make it, you'll keep my girls safe."_

Hershel's pleading eyes had bore into him, and there was no way he could deny the man his request, so he reluctantly promised the older man that he would keep Maggie and Beth safe. He hadn't actually thought it would ever come to this. And as fate would have it, Beth was the only person he had seen after the final attack.

**Author's Note: I apologize for this chapter being a bit shorter than the others, but I feel that there are a lot of clues and special moments in there. I just love the ending! I think it really explains why Daryl has been so worried about Beth, and his promise to Hershel is definitely going to play a big role going forward.**

**Leave a review to let me know what you think!**

**P.S. After writing this chapter I have the urge to write more, and soon! I'm not going to rush anything, but I may be so motivated to write that another chapter could be produced today and up sometime today or tomorrow! Oh, and I have the next few chapters roughly planned out, and let me tell you, a lot will be happening!**


	5. Chapter 5

Ch.5

Beth paused by the edge of the river. She felt uncomfortable stripping all the way down with Daryl just a few yards away. Even though he was turned away, she still wished she could put a curtain up for more privacy. She looked down and saw that her clothes were drenched with blood and she could feel the sticky substance weighing heavy on her face and hair. Daryl, on-the-other-hand, barely had a drop on him; if she didn't know it, she would have thought that Daryl hadn't killed any walkers and had let her do all of the work.

With an uneasy shrug she kicked off her boots and socks, and then lifted her shirt over her head, throwing it to the side. She took one last peek at Daryl, making sure he wasn't watching, before unbuttoning her jeans and tossing them by her shirt. She refused to take her underwear and bra off.

She tiptoed into the water and bit back a shriek when the freezing cold temperatures sent a shudder up her spine, goose bumps forming on her skin. She hurriedly made it all the way in, ducking underwater in hopes that she would adjust to the temperature faster. She could feel as the dirt and grime, sweat and blood, washed off of her body. She scraped at her skin, trying to get the blood that had dried off. Her hair was much harder to clean. The blood had pretty much died her blond hair red, and she spent a good 15 minutes painstakingly rubbing her hair between her palms, the red slowly fading. When she was satisfied that she was clean she went back and retrieved her clothes, knowing that the blood would leave permanent stains.

She went to get out of the river, almost certain that her lips were blue, when she noticed something. Her eyes scoured the beach, looking for the item she needed. She backed further into the river, letting the water come up around her neck, when she realized it wasn't there.

"Daryl, I have a problem." Her cheeks were already growing red.

"What? "

"I left the blanket in the backpack. Can-can you bring it to me?"

"You scared to get out an' get it yourself?" He laughed, knowing that she was embarrassed. He got up regardless and grabbed the blanket from the backpack.

"Don't look! Just, toss it." She knew that he wasn't looking, and was happy when he did as she said and tossed it in her direction before taking his place by the fire.

She rushed to grab the blanket, quickly wrapping it around her body, and then put her socks and boots back on. Daryl had cooked the squirrel he had killed earlier and had already filled the empty bottles with water boiled from the river. Even though she had her underwear and bra on and a blanket wrapped around her, she still felt too exposed and vulnerable sitting across from Daryl. She had a feeling that the blush that had risen in her cheeks earlier hadn't gone away.

He passed her some of the squirrel, and this time she wasn't going to decline eating. After her battle with the walkers and her brief lapse of nausea, hunger had settled in, and she was ready to eat. Beth could see the pleasure in Daryl's eyes when he saw her take a couple of bites; after all, he had been trying to get her to eat something since they left the prison.

"Do you think anyone else made it?" Her voice was hushed, but her eyes looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah. Someone was driving that bus, and a bus is a lot safer than being out in the open."

This was the first time they had talked about the possibility, or lack thereof, of anybody else surviving. "You didn't see Maggie, did you? The last I saw of her she was running to get Glenn."

He shook his head no and her heart sank. She wanted to hear that he had seen her flee the prison, that she was with someone else, and that she would make it. But neither of them had seen her, and for all she knew, she could still be back at the prison or she could be a back on the road they had come from.

Daryl looked at her a little longer before saying anything else; it was like he was debating whether or not to tell her something. "We heard a message on the radio?"

Beth looked up from the food in her hands. "What?" She thought that he was lying. There was no way he had heard anything other than static on the radio.

"Back when me, Tyreese, Michonne, and Bob went to get the medicine. I turned on the radio, was about to put in a CD but then we heard a message."

"What did it say?" She had stopped eating, her eyes trained on him, wanting to know more.

"' Sanctuary…those who arrive…survive.' Didn't hear anything else, we ran into a herd."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Nope, just us who were in the car," he paused, "and you."

"What do you think it means?"

"Don't know. Could just be something left over for one of the safety shelters they had when the outbreak first happened, an emergency alert. Or it could be for something new, haven't had much time to look into it."

They fell quiet as they finished eating. Beth's mind had gone from thoughts about Maggie to thoughts about this mysterious radio message Daryl had heard. Who could be on the radio? Where could this sanctuary be?"

* * *

The sun had already set, and he kept looking at Beth from across the fire. He could hear her teeth chattering and her lips looked blue. He had made a makeshift rack to hang her clothes on by the fire, but they were still damp. She was wearing her underwear, which he knew hadn't had the chance to dry since they were covered in the blanket and not exposed to the air.

"You cold?"

"No." She was quick to answer, but he knew she was lying. He gave her a look, and she immediately changed her answer. "Maybe a little."

Daryl moved closer to her and was shocked when she didn't inch further away. He pulled her closer to him, hoping his body heat would warm her up a little. The temperature was only going to drop more. Before he knew it she was curled into his body, wrapping the blanket tighter around, her eyes closed tight in sleep. It didn't take long for his eyes to grow heavy and for him to eventually drift off.

He woke up to a rising sun, Beth's head resting gently on his chest. He thought about waking her up, but decided against it when he realized that this was the first night she had slept without nightmares. Plus, he had things he wanted to do before she woke up.

Lightly lifting her head off of him and placing it back on the ground, he got up. He checked around their temporary camp to make sure no walkers were near before grabbing his crossbow and trudging in the direction they had come from yesterday. He was on a mission, but he didn't want Beth to know about it.

He walked a little ways from Beth, but made sure he was close enough to get to her in time if he heard any screams. He wasn't far from where he had heard the twig break, and he could already see tracks. He could vaguely make out where dirt had been brushed away, leaving a slight impression of a shoe. It was large, maybe a size bigger than his, and definitely a man's. He was dismayed when he began to see more, a lot more. A snapped twig there, too big to be broken by an animal; large patches of grass pushed down from the weight of someone sitting there; they were all around him.

He hurriedly made his way back to Beth. He didn't want her to be alone anymore with his newfound evidence; she wouldn't be leaving his sight anytime soon. She was still sleeping, and as much as he wanted to let her catch up on the sleep she had missed, he knew he had to wake her. He lightly shook her until her eyes opened. He waited until her grogginess had passed before speaking.

"We're being followed."

**Author's Note: Uh oh! Daryl and Beth are being followed! Who do you think they are? Are they good or bad? Would love to hear your theories and suspicions.**

**Also, I just realized that in my excitement for "Ruined" I have sort of put my other story, "A Fighting Chance," on the back burner. I plan to update "A Fighting Chance" later this week. I'm going to need to get used to writing two stories at once.**


	6. Chapter 6

Ch.6

His words made her heart skip a beat, and she felt excitement and hope swell up inside of her. If they were being followed it could be someone from their group, it could be Maggie.

"Get your things together, we need to move." His voice was sharp, taut.

She was confused. "Shouldn't we stay here? If it's Maggie, we shou-."

Daryl cut her off. "It's not Maggie, not anyone from the prison. We need to get going."

Any hope she had vanished with his words. "Then who is it?" Her voice was small.

"Don't know, now get your clothes on," he said, tossing her the clothes that had been drying on the rack.

She didn't even try to catch them; she was sill trying to make sense of what he was saying. She quietly got up, and without even caring if he saw her, dropped the blanket and put her clothes on. She could tell that he was worried, something was putting him on edge, and anything that worried Daryl terrified Beth.

She helped him collect their few belongings, being sure to grab the pot she had found yesterday. They stuffed as much as they could into the backpack, which Beth volunteered to carry. While Daryl gathered his bow and arrows and tried to erase any evidence that they had been there, Beth tied her hair back in a pony.

She felt reenergized from the full night's sleep she had gotten, but she was starting to wish that she would be tired because she had a million things going through her mind. She noticed how Daryl stayed close to her side, sneaking a careful glance in her direction every few minutes. He was being careful to not create a lot of noise, and he was trying to eliminate any obvious tracks they were leaving behind. Daryl hadn't told her much, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

"Daryl, why are you so worried?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

"It's something. How do you know it isn't anybody from our group?" She didn't notice that she had stopped walking.

"Their tracks. Large feet, men's feet. Besides, if they were from our group wouldn't they try to catch up to us, not stalk us from a safe distance?"

Beth looked over the fact that he had said they were being stalked, and focused more on what else he had said. "There's more than one?"

Daryl nodded his head. "Can't be sure how many, but it's more than us. Now come on, we need to keep going."

He didn't seem willing to offer up any more information, so she decided not to push it. As they walked she began to notice that they had slightly changed direction, but she wasn't certain, and Daryl wasn't exactly in a very talkative mood. She kept her mouth shut as he stopped and pointed to a rabbit only five yards away. He steadied his crossbow and shot at it, the rabbit dropping dead in its place. She hoped that it hadn't felt anything. When he went to recover his arrow and his kill, she saw as he looked at his arrow, the tip of it broken. He put the tip in his back pocket.

They didn't have to walk much further for everything to change and for the veil of safety she had felt since being with Daryl fade away. Daryl had spotted them first, before Beth could even make them out. Through the trees and foliage there was movement, too fluid to be walkers. Daryl leaned into Beth's ear, his lips practically brushing her skin.

"Run," it was quiet and he stayed calm, but she knew that there was a sense of urgency behind the words.

Without thinking she obeyed his command. She wasn't positive what she was running from, but she assumed it couldn't be anything good. She felt her foot catch on the root of a tree and she fell hard to the ground. In one swift movement Daryl grabbed her elbow and yanked her back to her feet forcefully, dragging her behind him, not letting go. She couldn't make out any of her surroundings, her adrenaline kicking into overdrive, making things blur. She nearly ran in to what they were running from.

* * *

In his attempt to avoid the group that was following them, he had led them straight into their trap. He saw their swift movements up ahead, still far away, but too close for his liking. He had whispered for Beth to run, and had pulled her back to her feet when she fell, refusing to let go of her arm in fear she would fall behind. But their running did them no good, because the group had circled around them, virtually surrounding them with nowhere to go; he had to jerk Beth's arm back to keep her from running straight into one of the people.

Daryl looked around him, scanning for any possible way to escape, but there weren't any. They were all around them, blocking any path of escape. And Daryl didn't like what he was looking at. All of the people were men, and not wimpy and frail men; they were all muscular and well built. Daryl tugged Beth closer to him; he had a feeling nothing good was going to come of this encounter.

He watched as one of the men, a man about Daryl's height and size with shaggy brown hair, stepped forward. He wanted to grab his crossbow from his back, but he knew that would only hinder any chance they had of getting free.

"We don't want no trouble," Daryl spit out, trying to keep his composure so as to not upset the man.

"We don't want any trouble either. We've been following you these past few days. I have to say, you're a tough bunch."

"Just let us go."

A dark smile appeared on the man's face. "Nah, we can't let that happen. We got to get food somewhere."

"You want our food? Here," Daryl said, removing the backpack from Beth's back and tossing it to the man.

The man just looked at it, guffawing loudly. "I don't think we're on the same page. You see, we haven't had that kind of food in a long time; we prefer a more unconventional food source."

"Was that your work at that tent back aways?" Daryl asked, clearly understanding what the man had meant.

"Ah, you saw it. Have to say, that man didn't put up much of a fight, we were all a little disappointed."

Daryl hadn't noticed, his attention had been too focused on the man talking to him, but one of the men off to his right had started to silently inch forward. He saw as the man before him, who was obviously the leader of this group, nodded his head. And before he had time to react he felt as Beth was ripped away from him, a gasp escaping her throat.

He didn't even think his actions through. His hand instinctually reached around to his back, bringing the crossbow to his front, aiming it at the man holding Beth. He had a knife to her throat, the blade pressing firmly to her delicate skin, making it impossible for her to break free without injury and impossible for him to shoot her assailant without him slitting her throat as he fell to the ground. He watched as the tears began to roll down her face, knowing there was nothing he could do to help her.

"Let her go!" He yelled.

"You see, we can't do that. We have plans for you two. We'll get you over with first, make it fast, just a little pain, if you don't struggle you probably won't feel a thing. Her," he said, motioning to Beth, "we have different plans for her. We don't come around women that often, and when we do, they aren't nearly as young and pretty as your little friend there."

Daryl felt his stomach churn. "You son of a bitch. If you so much as lay a finger on her…"

"A finger? I plan on laying a whole lot more on her than just a finger, and I'm pretty sure every man here will do the same. She probably won't like it too much at first, but she'll get over it soon enough."

Daryl felt the heat rise in face; he was furious with what the man was suggesting. He didn't care what happened to him, he just didn't want anything to happen to Beth. His finger rested carefully on the trigger, his eyes narrowing on the man holding Beth. He was about to take a chance, hoping it wouldn't harm Beth, when he saw Beth's eyes widen and felt a hard blow to the back of his head; the world went black around him.

**Author's Note: And they finally meet their enemy! Things aren't looking too good for them. What do you think will happen?**

**And thank you for all of the reviews and favorites and follows! It means so much for me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning: This chapter has a triggering scene and is a little intense.**

Ch.7

It all happened so quickly that at first she didn't even know what had happened. She saw the man sneak up behind Daryl, and just as Daryl fell to the ground she let out a blood-curdling scream. The man who had the knife to her throat released her, and Beth instantly lunged toward Daryl, but was caught by strong arms wrapping around her, pulling her tight to an unfamiliar body.

"Uh-uh, you're staying with us, they'll take care of him."

She tried to break free of his grip, but the man was too strong for her. She watched as one of the men walked over to Daryl and dragged him towards a tree, leaning him up just enough to wrap rope around his wrists, binding them behind his back so he wouldn't be able to use them when he was conscious. Her view became blocked by the man who had been doing all of the talking.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't cry," he said softly, caressing her face in his hand. "We're gonna take good care of you. Give it a few days, maybe a week, and you'll forget all about him." He paused for a long second before speaking again. "Why don't you tell me your name?"

Beth didn't answer him; she was straining to see past him, wanting to make sure Daryl was alright. But any progress she had made in getting a glimpse of Daryl was lost when the man roughly moved her face to meet his.

"I asked you what your name was." His voice was hard, raspy, any trace of the fake tenderness it had before was gone.

"Beth," she said, barely audible.

"Well Beth, that's a very pretty name." He let go of her face and gestured for the man gripping her to loosen his grasp, allowing for Beth to move from his body. "My name's Eric."

He reached his arm out to grab her, but Beth backed away. She didn't want any of these men touching her. All she wanted was to get Daryl and go. But her gut was telling her that she wasn't going to get her wish, and she was terrified of what was to come.

"You just see that boys?" He said bewildered. "She backed away from me. Now isn't that a little mean sweetheart, considerin' we're gonna be taking care of you."

"I don't want you to take care of me," she spat back, shoving Eric away from her. She didn't know where her sudden bravery came from, but she immediately regretted it.

Before she knew it she felt knuckles connect with her face, forcing her to the ground. She was almost certain something was broke, and knew that a bruise was already in the process of forming. She leaned up a little and her hand went to her cheek. She rolled over to get up but was stopped by a violent kick to her ribs, and she felt the air leave her lungs.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing pushing me like that?" He screamed, giving another forceful blow to her ribs.

Beth was crippled over in pain, unable to move, curled up trying to block herself from another kick. She rolled onto her stomach, trying to crawl away, not sure of where the men were. She felt as her chin hit the ground and her arms and knees went out from under her. She didn't know what was happening, everything was fuzzy, and the noises around her blurred together.

And then the world caught up to her and she dug her fingers into the soft dirt, desperately trying to get a grip on something; they were dragging her away, someplace where Daryl wasn't. Her attempt was pointless though, because there was nothing to cling to. All of a sudden the dragging stopped, and she was turned so she was facing the sky.

She vaguely sensed something tugging at her waist and then the cool breeze on her legs. Fear jolted through her, causing adrenaline to course through her body. She began to kick and scream. A coarse hand covering her mouth muffled her screams and her kicks were subdued with body weight. Before she had time to react her shirt was torn from her body, and the hand that had been covering her mouth lifted her back and unclasped her bra.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen; her first time was supposed to be magical, like in the movies. The boy was supposed to kiss her softly, telling her that he loved her, and then things were supposed to escalate. She wasn't ready for this. The furthest she had ever gone was a light peck on the lips with Jimmy, a peck on the cheek with Zach. She wanted Daryl to come to her rescue; he had every time before, but she knew in the back of her mind that this was different, and that Daryl wasn't there to swoop in to save the damsel in distress, but she held on to that hope until it was shattered.

She was on her stomach again, her body pinned to the ground by someone much heavier, unable to move. She felt the pain from the friction of him inside of her. The cheek that she knew had a bruise was on the ground, scraping against the dirt and little rocks beneath it with each thrust. Tears were flowing freely and she was crying out, knowing it would only fuel his anger, but she couldn't help it anymore. Eric's hands were grazing over her body, tucking beneath her and reaching towards her chest. She focused her eyes on a lone flower a few feet from her and let her mind go numb, doing her best to block out everything that was happening.

* * *

His vision slowly came back to him, and his head was throbbing. At first he couldn't hear anything, but then he could hear muffled noises. He looked around him, trying to make sense of what was happening. And then everything came back to him in a whirlwind. The muffled noises became clear, piercing his ears; it was Beth. He went to bring his arms to his front, but quickly realized that he couldn't; they were tied behind his back with what he assumed was rope. He realized that Beth's screams had quit, and he didn't know whether that was a good thing or bad. He could only imagine what she was going through.

His heart was pounding in his chest, he was enraged and ready to kill, but he couldn't. He looked around again and saw his crossbow sitting right next to him and a man sitting a few feet away. He tried to pull his hands free of the rope, but it wasn't giving.

"Where's Beth?" The man just looked at him and turned his attention back to the knife he was now holding in his hand. "You mother fucker, I said where is she?"

"Woah, woah, calm down there boy."

Daryl looked up to see the man he had been talking to earlier. But he barely paid any attention to the man when he saw the figure he had trailing behind him. It was Beth, her hair and clothes disheveled. The spark in her eyes had dimmed, replaced by a vacant emptiness. Her right cheek was a deep shade of purple and blue, and he could tell that it had been rubbed against a rough surface. He barely recognized her, any life that was there before was gone.

"What did you do to her?" His voice was soft at first, hurt, but when a beaming grin grew on the man's face he angrily shouted, trying to lunge forward. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"Let me tell you, she's good. I thought you would have gotten to her already, but I can tell I was her first. She was a little feisty at first, put up a good fight, but she mellowed out after a while; I told you she would." He turned to look at Beth, his hand lightly grazing her cheek. "I'll let her rest a little, there's a few more men who want to have their way with her, and I wouldn't mind going at it again."

He pushed Beth in Daryl's direction, and she collapsed to her knees before him, not bothering to look him in the eyes.

"Keep an eye on them. I'll be back for the girl in a bit." He started to stalk away in the direction he had just come from, but stopped for a brief moment, "Oh, and bind her hands."

Daryl hadn't even realized that her arms were limply hanging at her side. When the man came up behind her and violently pulled her arms behind her she didn't even try to wrench them away, she just let him tie her hands like it was nothing. Soon she was leaning against the same tree Daryl was. Only now did Daryl notice the glistening streaks running the length of her face, but the tears weren't there anymore. The girl had no fight left in her, and he blamed himself.

"Beth," his voice was soft, he didn't want to frighten her anymore than she already was, "Beth, are you alright?" He knew it was a stupid question, but those were the only words he could think to say. "I'm so sorry."

His words were meaningless. It was like he was talking to a wall; she wasn't registering anything he said. He had to get her out of here before they could damage her anymore, if that was even possible. His fingers were resting in his back pocket, and the tip of them brushed up against something sharp. It was the arrowhead that had broken off earlier that day. He had forgotten all about it.

Carefully he removed it from his pocket, being sure not to drop it. He positioned it in his hand, the edge pushed against the rope. Slowly he started moving it up and down, cutting through the rope a little more with each motion. It felt like it was taking forever, and he knew it wouldn't be long before that man came back for Beth. Then he felt the rope loosen around his wrists, and he unwound them, discreetly reaching his hand to his knife.

**Author's Note: I actually hated writing this chapter; what those men did to Beth was horrible. That being said, I like how it turned out. Beth was finally getting back to being her old self, and now those men have taken that and so much more from her. What happened in this chapter is going to be very important for the rest of the story, for both Daryl and Beth.**

**Review please!**


	8. Chapter 8

Ch.8

He wasn't sure how to approach the situation. If he got up and walked over to the man, the man would most likely yell and alert the others. If the others came running to the man's aid, Daryl and Beth would have no chance. They would easily be outnumbered. His hand was still resting on his knife, and he quietly pulled it from its sheath and pulled his hands to his back. He nudged the crossbow sitting next to him, making it fall over with a thud.

"Hey, you gonna' get over here and pick that up?" The man just looked at him like he was stupid. "If you're going to want to keep it you don't want it to be broke."

The man got up reluctantly, mumbling something under his breath. Daryl was thankful when the man was stupid enough to leave his knife where he had been sitting. As the man reached down to pick up the crossbow, Daryl brought his arms from behind his back, the knife stabbing deep into the man's neck. He felt as the man's body went limp and he pulled the knife out. The man didn't even make a noise.

He turned to Beth, who didn't even peer over to see what had just occurred. Her eyes were blank, staring at nothing in particular. His hand lightly grasped her arm, and he felt as every muscle in her body tensed and her eyes filled with fear.

"Beth, it's just me, it's Daryl. I'm going to get you out of here." He turned her slightly so that he could reach her bound hands. He cut the rope with one swipe.

He heard someone approaching and saw a man heading their way. He couldn't tell if it was the leader or not. He grabbed his crossbow, loading an arrow in it, waiting for the man to get closer.

"Hey sweet cheeks, it's my turn with you," the man slurred, his shadowy figure becoming clearer.

To Daryl it sounded like he was drunk, which would make this even easier; the man would never see it coming. When the light of the fire brought the man's image into focus Daryl released the arrow, piercing the man straight in the heart. Normally he would be killing these men with a puncture to skull, destroying the brain so they wouldn't turn. But these men didn't deserve that courtesy, and when they turned they would have a camp full of men to feast on.

The sound of the man hitting the ground dead must have alerted the others to something happening, because in the distance he saw one of the men stand up and start walking over to the where Daryl and Beth were. Daryl ran over to Beth.

"Beth, come on, we gotta' go. Now!"

Beth didn't do anything; she stayed firmly in place, the words going through one ear and out the other. Without thinking Daryl grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. He regretted his harsh way of handling the situation, suddenly remembering what had just happened to her, but if she wasn't going to be a willing participant in their escape, Daryl would drag her out of here.

They started running, Daryl still pulling Beth, making sure she was always at his side. He snuck a look back and saw the group of men running towards them. They were stumbling. Daryl was right, that man had been drunk, and the rest of them were too. This would make getting away from them easier. He felt nauseous when he realized they were probably celebrating the events of the day.

The men abruptly stopped, knowing they were in no condition to be chasing people through a forest full of walkers. But that didn't stop the leader of the group from yelling one last threat in their direction, a promise Daryl hoped he wouldn't keep.

"Go ahead, run. I'll find you. And when I do, Beth is going to wish she were dead; I promise you that."

Daryl continued running, pushing the man's words to the back of his mind. He had worse things to worry about right now. It was pitch black out and they had no flashlight, no food, no water, and no shelter. He could feel Beth starting to slow her pace next to him; she was in no condition to be running, she was hurting both emotionally and physically. He needed to find them someplace to stay the night, but that was a lot easier said than done when in the middle of the woods.

Daryl found himself doing something he hadn't done in years, not since he was a child, he was praying. It was a silent prayer that only he could hear, and he was almost certain that if God was real he wasn't listening. He was beginning to give up hope on finding someplace to sleep when he started to make out something up ahead. As they got closer he noticed that it was a cabin, probably a hunter's cabin.

It wasn't as far away from the group of men as he would have liked, but he knew that Beth couldn't go any further, and he felt confident that if they started moving again tomorrow the drunken men wouldn't be able to catch up to them. He put his hand up to stop Beth from getting any closer; he wanted to make sure the place wasn't infested with walkers. He opened the door and peered into the darkness. He was quiet, listening for any of the telltale sounds of a walker, but he didn't hear any. He did a quick sweep of the place and then went and got Beth.

When they got inside Daryl did another quick glance of the place. It was small, but it would do. It had a little kitchen, a bathroom, a fireplace, and one twin size bed. He would let Beth have the bed; she needed it more than he did. He walked over to the fireplace and saw that the wood was already there and all he needed to do was light a match, which was conveniently sitting right by the fireplace. When the flame caught, the room was ignited with light. It was only when he turned around that he noticed Beth hadn't moved an inch.

Not having to worry about the men and having to devise a plan of escape allowed him to fully take in Beth and her appearance. Her cheek was even worse than he had first thought. The shades seemed to have darkened and the scrapes were covered in dirt. He would have to clean it, but he was pretty sure now wasn't a good time. Her normally perfect, confident posture was now slumped, and she seemed to be favoring her right side, though he couldn't see any injury that would cause her to do so. But it wasn't the physical injuries that worried him; it was the obvious emotional trauma she had suffered that scared him the most.

He decided to let her be, to let her have her time alone to process everything. He went to the kitchen and began looking through the cupboards, hoping to find some food. He found a few cans of beans and mixed fruit and was shocked when he saw the amount of bottled water this cabin had. Off in the corner sat four unopened cases of bottled water. When he had searched every inch of the kitchen he went back to the common area.

Beth was sitting in the middle of the floor, eyes staring at the fire much like they had the first night after the prison. But things were so different now. Back then he knew he would be able to get Beth back, but now he was afraid she was gone for good. The girl sitting there was just a shell of the person she used to be.

The tears started trailing down her face, slow but steady. Then he watched as she lay on her side, curled into a little ball, her crying continually growing louder until her sobs were radiating through the cabin. His heart sank as he watched her small frame shake and heard her gasp for breath. He wanted to run over to her and cradle her in his arms, but he knew that there was no such thing as a comforting touch for Beth now. He knew that touching her would only scare her even more.

He stood there by the entrance to the kitchen and watched. It must have been hours before her sobbing finally died down, making the sudden lack of noise seem too quiet, eerie even. He thought about carrying her to the bed, but he didn't want to risk waking her up. He decided to take the blanket from the bed and gently lay it on her, being careful not to wake her. He lay down on the bed and watched her until his eyes became too heavy and he was overcome with exhaustion.

**Author's Note: First of all, thank you for all of your reviews! I wasn't too sure how you guys would react to the last chapter, and I honestly wasn't that confident with it. But despite how terrible the events were in Ch.7, everyone seemed to like it.**

**Second, I have already written Ch.9. But, as I have come down with some kind of illness (crossing my fingers it's not the flu!), I'm not sure how good it is. I'm going to wait to post it until I have a chance to reread it and make sure my thoughts and ideas aren't jumbled and scattered like my head seems to be at the moment.**


	9. Chapter 9

Ch.9

The sun filtering through the window woke Daryl and he got out of the bed, stretching. The fire had gone out long ago, and Beth was still curled up on the floor sleeping. He wanted to get moving as soon as possible, but he would let Beth sleep as long as she needed.

He wasn't sure of their surroundings or where exactly they had ended up, so he went outside, making sure to be quiet so he wouldn't wake Beth. As he had guessed they were in the woods, that was a given, but he didn't expect there to be a dirt road, which he imagined led to a main road. Following that road would be their best bet. If they could make it to the main road they could hopefully follow that until they came across a town, someplace safer.

He went back inside to find Beth awake, but she was still lying on the floor. Her eyes were still glued to the fireplace, so Daryl went over and added more wood and lit a match. He looked back at her; she looked even more exhausted and broke than she had last night.

He walked to the bathroom and looked in the medicine cabinet. Thankfully there was a first aid kit, because with every passing hour Beth's cheek was looking worse and worse. Most of it was the bruise, but he didn't want the scrapes to get infected.

Walking back to her he wasn't sure how to approach the situation. He couldn't wait any longer to clean it, but she hadn't even said a word to him or looked his way since everything happened. Thankfully she had brought herself to an upright position, and Daryl knelt in front of her. Her watery eyes were still watching the fire.

"Beth, I just need to look at your cheek. Okay?"

When she didn't respond he brought his hand to her face, but she backed away from his touch, her body tensing once again. He realized that this approach wasn't working; he needed to try something else. He needed to distract her.

"There's a dirt road. I think it leads to a main road." He brought his hand to her face again, this time she didn't flinch. "We can follow that, maybe find a small town." He brought an alcohol swab to the cheek, gently wiping away the dirt and cleaning the cuts. "We could stay there a night or two and then make our way to where we need to be."

He felt a rush of relief when he was finished. She looked him in the eyes as he cleaned up the first aid kit, nodding her head in agreement to his plans. That was a start. He had cleaned the cut and she had made the first acknowledgement that he was there. It was a small start, but it was better than nothing.

Before they left, Daryl found a backpack, this one larger than the one they had previously had. He put the food, water, blanket, and first aid kit in it. He left out two bottles of water, handing one to Beth, who didn't bother to open it. Then they left, the cabin slowly disappearing behind them.

Daryl had been right, the dirt road led to a main road. He knew that they were bound to come across a little town somewhere along the road, so they kept walking. Beth made sure to keep her distance from Daryl, always staying at least ten feet from him, still too afraid to be close to another human. When he looked to the bottle of water to see if she had drank any, which she hadn't, he realized that her belt was missing. He assumed the men had taken it from her yesterday, leaving her with no weapon; it was yet another reminder of what she had been through

They had walked at least three miles, and it was taking its toll on Beth. Her breathing was ragged and whatever had been causing her pain on her right side last night hadn't seemed to have gone away. He was about to take a break when he saw a neighborhood. It was a suburban neighborhood; probably before the world went downhill it had been packed with perfect families and smiling children, but now it was deserted, making it the ideal spot for them to stay.

He walked down the street, trying to decide what house to stay in. For the most part the houses all looked the same, only having minor differences. But some of the houses seemed to have put up with the end of the world better than others. He chose a house that was in the middle of the street, the backyard backing up to the woods, offering a good escape if anything were to happen. All of the windows were intact, and the door was locked.

He managed to pick the lock and get inside; just like the cabin there were no walkers. Out of habit he turned the handles to the sink, not expecting anything to come out. He jumped back, startled, when he heard the pipes creaking and then saw water start to pour out of the faucet, filling the sink. Pushing his luck he flipped the switch to the kitchen light, and the room was suddenly bright. He couldn't figure out why anyone would abandon this place. There were no walkers in sight, they had self-provided water and electricity, which he assumed came from a generator somewhere. This would be the perfect place for them to stay until they could begin moving again.

He turned to look at Beth to find that she didn't share the same excitement he did; her face showed no emotion, just emptiness. She hadn't said anything to him on their way here, and she was still keeping her distance. Walking to the bathroom he prayed that the shower would work, and thanked God when it did.

"The shower works. You want to take one?"

She didn't answer, but her eyes met his; the second time that day. She stared at him for a few minutes before shaking her head no.

"Maybe later, when you're ready. The place seems safe, so I'm going to jump in real quick." He left Beth standing in the kitchen, feeling horrible for doing so. He didn't know what to do with her. Maybe a warm shower would allow him to gather his thoughts.

As he showered he became aware to the fact that this was the first time he had had a warm shower in over a year. Sure, they had showers at the prison, and while they weren't cold, they weren't exactly warm. But here he could adjust the temperature to his liking.

When he got out he went to the kitchen. Beth had taken a seat at the table in the dining room; she was staring at her hands, which she was fumbling with. Her knee was bobbing up and down. The bottle of water he had given her earlier that day was sitting on the table in front of her; the cap remained sealed.

"I'm going to make us some dinner." He paused, glancing at Beth before proceeding. "You should take a shower, we actually have warm water."

She nodded and got up, heading to the bathroom he had just come from. The door silently shut behind her, and Daryl relaxed when he heard the shower start. He rummaged through the backpack and found a can of beans. The house had an electric stove, so he was able to heat them up in a pot. He was putting the beans on a plate when he heard sobs coming from the bathroom.

He dropped the spoon and pot and rushed to the bathroom door. It was locked. He slammed his body into it until it gave way. Beth was sitting on the floor, the towel wrapped tightly around shoulder, covering as much of her body as she could. Her hair was dripping wet, and he could see the glisten of water on her skin. Daryl went over to her and leaned down in front of her.

She brought her gaze to his, the tears flowing from her eyes. "I can't put them back on." The words were ragged and broken, fit in between gasps.

At first he was confused and had no idea what she was talking about. Looking around the small room his eyes landed on her clothes. She didn't want to put them back on; they held to much pain, too many bad memories. Daryl scooped Beth up in his arms, not thinking, and felt as her body became rigid, but she let him carry her. He carried her to one of the bedrooms and set her down on the bed.

He went over to the dresser and started going through the clothes, the sound of Beth's crying filling the room behind him. He managed to find a pair of underwear that looked to be her size, a bra, and a large shirt that was way too big to fit her properly, but it would have to do. He turned around and a pit formed in his stomach when he realized what was about to happen.

He timidly walked over to Beth, her legs hanging over the side of the bed. He set the clothes down beside her, and taking a deep and steady breath, grabbed the pair of underwear, carefully putting her feet through the holes and guiding them up her legs. She stood up and allowed him to pull them up the rest of the way. He then turned her so that her back was to him and eased the towel off of her. He reached for the bra, and as he put it on her he realized the extent of her injuries, and a wave of sadness swept through him.

Bruises littered her body. Handprints were plastered to her delicate pale skin, the fingers reaching to her chest. When she turned around the sight was even more appalling, and he finally understood why she had been favoring her right side. Her right rib cage was a multitude of hues, shades of purple and blue so deep they shouldn't exist on anybody's skin. The realization of her injuries made the bruise on her cheek seem like nothing. He tore his eyes away and grabbed the shirt, helping Beth into it. Her tears quickly made dark spots on the orange t-shirt.

"I'll look for something that fits you tomorrow." His voice was brittle, and he went to turn, but he felt a small hand grab his wrist.

"Don't go." His eyes flickered to hers, and he followed a tear as it rolled down her face. "Please." Her voice was soft, desperate.

Daryl searched her eyes for the briefest of seconds before climbing onto the bed, his back resting against the headboard. Beth joined him, laying her head on his chest. He held her tight as her crying shook them both, his free hand stroking her hair in a weak attempt to calm her. He wondered if she would ever recover from this, and he felt guilty that he hadn't been able to prevent it from happening.

**Author's Note: I must have just had a 24 hour thing, because I feel much better now. It turns out that when I'm sick I'm even more of an avid writer than usual...I managed to write Ch.10 and Ch.11 yesterday (partly because I couldn't go to sleep). I still need to edit them, though.**

**Anyway, they found someplace safer to stay than in the woods! But Daryl has also realized how badly Beth is hurt, both emotionally and physically.**

**And, to address a question ZodiasK asked in a review of Ch.8, I do plan on continuing this story when The Walking Dead starts back up in two weeks. I don't plan on ending the story just because what I write may not be what happens in the show. I may take a few ideas from the show and incorporate it into the story, but for the most part they will be two completely separate entities.**


	10. Chapter 10

Ch.10

Beth woke to an empty room. The quiet made nervous butterflies form in her stomach. She was exhausted and struggled to remember the events of the previous night. She remembered Daryl clutching her tightly last night as she cried, but now he was nowhere to be found, and the muted noises of the house told her that he wasn't inside.

Getting up out of the bed she became aware of how much she hurt. She had prayed that the pain would subside overnight, but they had gone unanswered, just like all of her other prayers she had said since leaving the prison, and for the first time in her life she found herself questioning her faith. If God existed, why would he put her through everything that had happened to her these last few days? Her thoughts were interrupted by the searing pain on her right side, causing her arm to fly to the bed to steady herself as she almost fell over.

She put on her boots, noting how the pain between her legs intensified with every movement, making walking difficult. She had heard before that your first time would hurt, but she didn't think it was supposed to hurt this bad. She sauntered over to the curtains and pulled them back, revealing a blazing sun and sliding glass doors. She had to squint her eyes from the brightness, and when they adjusted to the change in lighting she opened the door and walked outside.

She didn't know what she was doing, she just felt compelled to do something, anything that would take her mind off of the pain and the memories. She walked out onto the little patio, her eyes scanning the woods that were only a few yards away. She looked down to the ground and saw a walker.

It was missing a leg just below the knee, just like her daddy. Its other leg was twisted at an odd angle that wasn't normal. It's low, guttural moans reached her ears, but Beth didn't flinch, she remained standing there as it slowly inched its way towards her, its hands desperately reaching for her ankles with each drag of its body.

She didn't know what she was hoping. In a way she wanted it to bite her, to make her feel a different pain than what she was feeling now. And in a way she wanted it to bite her so that maybe the numbness that was resonating through her body would go away. She felt its bony hands grasp her ankle, and the light tug of it dragging its gnawing teeth closer to her flesh.

* * *

Daryl had gotten up before Beth, which was usual. Her head had still been resting against his chest; the tears that had wetted his shirt last night had just finished drying. He delicately shifted out from underneath her, exiting the room to let her rest.

He knew that since he had been able to find a bra and underwear in that dresser last night there had to be another bedroom that had clothes that would fit Beth. He opened the door to each room, and on his fourth door he found a woman's room. He searched through her dresser until he came across a pair of jeans that looked to be Beth's size. He went to the closet and found a tank top and sweater. Before walking outside he set the clothes on the dining room table.

He had been so consumed in getting the car started that he had lost track of time. When he emerged from under the hood he looked up to see the sun high in the sky; it had to be around noon. He decided to walk around back to see what was in the back yard, but stopped in his tracks, horrified, when he saw Beth.

She was standing there, completely silent. Her arms were wrapped around her body. She was still wearing the shirt he had put on her last night, which came to rest just above her knees, and she had put on her boots. Standing there she looked even more frail and delicate than he had ever seen anybody before. Her face was tilted down towards the walker with its hands wrapped around her ankle.

Knowing he couldn't wait another second, he aimed his crossbow and watched as the arrow went through the skull of the walker, not even making Beth wince. Beth had been mere seconds away from being bit, and she hadn't even tried to prevent it. He felt like any progress she had made last night had been lost. Daryl walked over to the walker, tearing its hands away from Beth's ankle and removing the arrow from its skull. When he rose he attempted looked Beth straight in the eye, but she was still looking down.

"Jesus Christ, Beth! What the fuck are you doin'? Trying to get yourself killed?" His words came out sharper than he had intended, but he couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.

When Beth didn't look at him he felt his temper rise, his irritation growing to a point he didn't know was possible with Beth. He involuntarily grabbed her face, forcing her eyes to meet his. He watched as the spark of fear rose in them and felt as she jerked away from him, nearly backing up all the way to the house. When the tears started to fall he knew he was to blame.

He instantly regretted what he had done. If he could go back in time he would be sure to react differently, but he couldn't, and now he was left with a feeling of guilt. He took a step forward, and was horrified when she took a step back. He had scared her.

"Beth, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that." He bowed his head in shame, his hand reaching the back of his neck, rubbing it. "I'm-I'm not mad at you, Beth, you just scared me."

He looked up to see she hadn't stopped crying, and he took another step towards her, this time she remained where she stood. As much as he wanted to cradle her in his arms and tell her how sorry he was and how everything would turn out alright, he didn't. He instead closed the distance between them and rested his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Beth. I didn't mean to scare you. I promise that I will never hurt you. Okay?"

She shook her head in understanding, her tears starting to recede.

"I got a car running out front. I was thinking we could go into town, maybe get some food and see if there's any sign that anyone from our group has been here." She nodded her head again. "I found some clothes for you, they look about your size. I set them on the table in the dining room. You take as much time as you need, okay."

He gave one last long stare into her eyes before walking back inside the house, leaving her outside to give her the space she needed. She would come in when she was ready. He wasn't going to push her, not after what he had just done.

**Author's Note: Kind of a short chapter that does't take place over an extended period of time, but I liked it. I think it shows how much Beth is hurting. Tell me what you think!**

**And thank you for all of the kind reviews of Ch.9...I'm glad you all liked it!**


	11. Chapter 11

Ch.11

He was beginning to think that she was never going to come in, that he had terrified her to the point she resented him and didn't dare be in the same space as him. But just as Daryl was about to go outside and make sure she was even there, he heard the sliding doors clang shut, and he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He listened to her light footsteps walking from the bedroom out to the hallway, noting the lack of gasping breaths, which Daryl assumed meant she had quit crying.

He watched as she entered the dining room, pausing a few feet from him. Her eyes were red and watery; she looked as if she was going to fall apart any minute. Her eyes flashed to him for a fleeting second, and then without saying a word, she grabbed the clothes he had set out for her and retreated back into the bedroom. He remained sitting at the table until he heard the door open again. He went and grabbed his crossbow and the bag he would take with him to put supplies in.

"Daryl?" His back was turned to her, and her voice sounded fragile. "I-I started my period." It was hardly a whisper, and Daryl had almost missed it.

He could practically hear her embarrassment in her voice, but Daryl felt a rush of relief. Ever since they had found the cabin and he had had time to think, he had been worrying about Beth and whether she could get pregnant. He had wondered whether those men had had enough courtesy to use protection, but he couldn't bring himself to ask Beth.

"We're heading into town, we'll get ya' what you need."

There was a moment of silence, and then Daryl heard Beth speak again. "I'm sorry," her voice was brittle, like she was going to break down any moment.

Daryl turned to her, taking in how her head was looking down, eyes staring at the floor, her arms crossed over her chest, hugging herself tightly as if she were trying to hold herself together. "Don't be; ain't nothin' you can do about it." He made sure to make his voice soft, reassuring; he didn't want her to feel embarrassed over something she had absolutely no control over.

The drive into town was quiet, the only noise coming from the sound of the car. Beth had her head leaned up against the window, eyes staring straight ahead. Daryl made a point to glance over to her every few minutes to make sure she was still breathing; he had never known someone could be that silent.

After a half hour of driving they entered the town. It wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. He wasn't sure where the grocery store was, so he drove up and down the streets until he found it. He was amazed with how few walkers he saw. It was almost as if a dome had been placed over the neighborhood they were staying in and the adjacent town they were now visiting. He pulled the car into the parking lot and put it in park, turning it off.

When he got out of the car he paused for a moment, looking at Beth who hadn't seemed to notice they had stopped. She must have felt his staring eyes because she opened her car door and got out, following him up to the store. As was usual, he took his elbow and gave a few loud knocks on the glass doors. One walker came to the front, and Daryl easily took it down with one stab to the skull. He waited a few more moments before heading inside, motioning for Beth to follow.

He did a thorough, but fast sweep of the place. There had been two more walkers lingering towards the back of the store, but that was all. He wasn't surprised to see that the majority of the shelves had been ransacked, but there was still plenty for them to take with them.

"You get what you need, I'll get us some food and other supplies."

He knew she wouldn't want him to tag along as she went to the aisle she needed, and he was confident that he had taken all of the walkers in the place. She went to turn but Daryl stopped her by clearing his throat. He remembered that she didn't have a weapon, and even if he knew there weren't any walkers, he didn't want to risk a walker making its way in from outside and attacking Beth when she was defenseless. His hand came to meet hers and he wrapped her fingers around the handle of his knife.

"Just in case," he said.

He watched Beth and her faltering steps as she looked down the aisles, trying to find the one she needed. When he saw her disappear down one, he went off in search of whatever they may need. After a few minutes he made his way towards the aisle Beth had vanished down. He nearly ran straight into her as she rounded the corner. He heard the clank as the knife he had given her hit the floor; he was thankful she had dropped it and hadn't perceived him as a threat instead. He looked down to her hands and saw her holding a little box; he quickly turned away.

"I don't know where the bathroom is." Her face was turning red and her voice wavered when she spoke.

Daryl leaned down and picked up the knife. "Come one, it's this way."

Beth followed him as he led the way to the bathroom. He checked for walkers again before allowing her to go in. He stayed just outside the entrance until she came out.

Before leaving they gathered a few more items, splitting up to cover more ground faster. Daryl went down the aisle Beth had been down, knowing that she would eventually need more of what she had grabbed. He didn't really know what he was looking at. There were so many different brands and he didn't know whether she preferred pads or tampons. He absent-mindedly threw a few boxes into the bag and went to a different aisle. When he met up with Beth again he saw that she hadn't grabbed much, just a single box of granola bars and a few boxes of oatmeal. Thankfully Daryl had stuffed his bag full of all kinds of food.

By the time they got back to the house they were both exhausted. Daryl thought about eating something, but decided against it after he got out of the shower and realized how tired he actually was. Beth had already gone off to her room, having taken a shower just minutes before Daryl. Daryl paused outside of her room, listening to see if she was still awake, but he didn't hear anything, so he sauntered off to his room. His eyes were just beginning to close as he drifted off to sleep when he heard his door open and saw a small, shadowy figure standing in the doorway.

"Daryl?" It was a whisper said under her breath, but Daryl heard it.

"Yeah."

"Can I sleep in here tonight?" He could hear the pleading in her voice.

"Yeah."

Beth made her way over to the bed and Daryl slid over to make room for her, pulling the blankets back for her to get under. She was wearing the t-shirt that he had put her in their first night here. She nuzzled close against him, surprising him that she was so willing to be that close to another human, let alone a man. He could feel her spine through the shirt, and her hipbones were prominently sticking out. He knew she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the day they were attacked by the group, only now did he realize the toll her starvation was taking on her body. He would need to get her to eat something tomorrow.

He was so consumed in his thoughts that he almost missed Beth talking. Her voice started in hushed tones, coming out slow, but as she continued talking the tears started flowing and her voice became ragged. Her body convulsed with the sobs and Daryl pulled her closer to him, not caring that he hadn't thought what his touch might do to her.

"I was so scared. I tried to fight back, but they were too strong. I tried to crawl away, but they were dragging me from you, and I couldn't stop them. And then he was on top of me, and I couldn't get out from underneath him. I tried to scream, but nobody could hear me, nobody could help me. And I felt him tear off my clothes, and I didn't know what to do. His hands were grabbing me and touching me and I couldn't push him away. It hurt so bad, and I just wanted it to stop, I prayed for it to stop, but it just kept going on. And then I saw a flower and focused on it, I tried to block it all out, but no matter what I did, no matter what I thought about, I could still feel him, I could still hear him. I wanted it all to stop, I wanted it to end."

He had thought about what had actually happened before, but hearing it from Beth, hearing her tell him what she had gone through, made everything seem so much worse, and he knew that that was because it was worse than anything he could have imagined. He hated himself for not being there for her when she needed him. He hated himself for not being able to keep his promise to Hershel. And he hated what those men had made Beth become; she was broken, the pieces scattered about, and he wasn't sure if she would ever be able to put those pieces back to together.

There was a moment where Beth stopped to catch her breath, her crying slowing but not stopping, and then she broke the silence again. "I should have fought harder. I should have done something different, I should have tried running. I should have been stronger." She paused again. "It's all my fault."

"No, no, it's not your fault. You can't think like that, Beth. There was nothing you could have done. You didn't deserve what happened to you. You fought hard, I know it. I'm proud of you. I promise that I will never let anyone hurt you again."

They remained like that; Beth curled into Daryl, Daryl holding her tight, until they fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Thank the freezing cold temperatures for the update. I wasn't planning on posting anything today, but because the wind chill is -30 degrees classes got cancelled. giving me time to revise this chapter and start the next one!**

**So, I'm not sure if any of you were wondering, but we found out that Beth isn't pregnant. I wasn't going to address that issue in the story, but I figured that that would be a very real problem. And, Beth opened up to Daryl about what happened. Beth blames herself and Daryl hates himself, especially for breaking his promise to Hershel (or at least he thinks he broke it?). I thought the end of the chapter was pretty emotional.**

**Tell me what you think. And, if you are anywhere where the temperature is as cold as it is here, stay warm!**


	12. Chapter 12

Ch.12

Daryl woke up to find that neither of them had moved much throughout the night. The only change in position was Beth's hand, which had laced itself with his at some point during the night. He started to get up out of bed, but stopped when he saw Beth's eyes flutter open. Realizing that she was holding his hand, she released it, but remained on the bed.

"I'm going to go and make us some breakfast," he said as he got up and left the room.

He rummaged through his bag until he found the box of oatmeal Beth had grabbed yesterday. He cooked the oatmeal and waited for Beth to come out of the room. He was trying to devise a plan, trying to come up with a way to get Beth to eat.

When Beth came out of the room he saw how exhausted she looked, the weight of her torment was drawn on her every feature. The life in her eyes had long since faded, and the circles beneath them had grown a darker shade, and it looked as if she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Her hair was a mess, and he guessed she hadn't brushed it out since her attack. And he could see the distinct outline of her shoulder blades and collarbone through the shirt she was wearing. While she had gotten a full night sleep, her body was desperately craving energy from food that she was refusing to give it.

She sat down in the chair directly across from him; oblivious to the bowl of oatmeal he had set out for her. It looked like she was zoning out, like she didn't really know what was going on. It was only when he talked to her that her eyes focused.

"You gonna' eat that?"

She looked to the bowl sitting in front of her, and picked up the spoon. For a moment he thought he had gotten lucky and that she was actually going to eat. He slumped in his chair defeated when she just pushed the food around.

He heard the spoon clink against the bowl and looked up and saw Beth lean back in her chair. "Where are we?"

He saw the perfect opportunity. She needed to eat and she wanted answers. It may be a little childish of him, but he was desperate to get Beth to eat.

"I'll tell you what, I'll answer whatever questions you have if you eat." He leaned forward, signaling to the bowl.

"But I'm not hungry."

"But you need to eat; haven't been able to get anything in you in days."

He saw her toss the thought about in her mind. And then she reluctantly pulled the bowl closer to her, hand grabbing the spoon. Once again she only played with the food, but when her eyes met Daryl's, almost pleading with him to not make her do this, and his eyes stayed strong and unwavering, she lifted the spoon to her mouth.

"We're in some town called Bushlake, actually a suburb of Bushlake."

"Do you know how to get to where we need to go?"

He looked at her and motioned for her to take another bite, and she did.

"I found a map in town yesterday. We somehow managed to get pretty far off course, but we have a car now, so if we leave soon we should be able to make it there by late afternoon."

There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Can you tell if they've been here?"

Daryl looked at her for a long while before answering. He knew what she wanted to hear, but he wasn't going to lie. He shook his head no, and when Beth didn't take a bite he didn't say anything. He would let this one go.

That's how their morning continued. Daryl would trade an answer for Beth eating a spoonful of her breakfast. They did this until her bowl was empty, and Daryl could already see the color coming back to her face.

"You go and get changed, I'll start packing up the car. I want to make sure we're there before dark."

Daryl grabbed anything he thought would be useful. He raided the kitchen cabinets and packed up any food that was still edible. He refilled their empty water bottles. He checked the rooms and was pleased when he found a gun hidden in a closet. And then he waited for Beth.

She was wearing the clothes from yesterday, and she had tied her hair back in a pony. She didn't have anything that she wanted to bring with her, so Daryl put the last few things in the car. They drove out of the little suburban neighborhood they had called home and headed for the main road. Daryl had memorized the directions he would need to take, and he hoped that they wouldn't run into any problems.

Beth hadn't said a word since getting in the car. They had been driving for over an hour, and they were keeping their thoughts to themselves. Daryl was wondering if anyone else had made it. He figured that someone had to, that they couldn't be the only ones. He wondered if anyone else had run into any trouble since the prison. Then he heard Beth's soft and hushed voice.

"Promise me that if we find the others you won't tell."

Daryl looked over at her, surprised, not sure how to respond. Her head was resting against the window, eyes staring out to the woods flashing by, and she had pulled her knees to her chest and had wrapped her arms around them tightly. He could see a tear escape her eye and start making its way down her face. He had thought about what they would do when they met up with the others, how they would tell them what had happened. He never thought that they wouldn't tell them.

"Beth, you know I can't do that." He kept his voice soft.

"Promise."

It was more of a pleading demand than a question, and he knew that she didn't want anyone to know what had happened. And despite his better judgment, he agreed.

"Promise."

After driving another three hours they made it to where Daryl wanted to be, the highway where they had lost Sophia. They hadn't said anything else after the promise she made him make, but he knew she understood where they were by the way she lifted her head from the window, her eyes scouring their surroundings for any sign of life.

Maneuvering around the abandoned vehicles on a motorcycle had been much easier than doing it in the car they were now in. But he managed to steadily make his way around the cars until he reached the car they had left the note for Sophia on. They had decided shortly after securing the prison that if anything happened they would go back to that car and then make their way to Hershel's farm.

Putting the car in park he got out, Beth following closely behind. He looked for any sign that someone from their group had been there. As he got closer he noticed a piece of paper stuck underneath the windshield wiper, and he grabbed it.

_At the farm. Not overrun._

There wasn't a name and there was no telling who else was with the anonymous writer, but it was the first sign they had received that someone else had survived. The note was snatched from his hands by Beth, whose eyes studied the note, searching for anything he may have missed.

"Can you tell who wrote it?" She shook her head no. "At least we know someone made it. Let's get going."

They got back in the car and made their way back to the farm. He saw as the familiar white house started to appear in the distance. The last time they had been there the place had been overrun with walkers, but now there wasn't a walker in sight. As he turned the car off people started to appear on the porch. When Maggie emerged from the crowd Beth swung her door open, and they both started running towards each other.

When their bodies finally collided he could see the way the impact had hurt Beth, but she didn't back away, instead she hugged her tighter and the sobs started to pour out of her. Her knees gave way and they were both on the ground in an instance. She was too happy to see her sister. Stepping from the car he got a better look of everyone on the porch. Almost everyone was here. Rick, Carl, Michonne, Tyreese, the kids, they had all made it. He stopped when he saw a familiar face he didn't think he would ever see again. Carol.

**Author's Note: So I'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter. I feel like something is missing, but I can't seem to put my finger on it. I have been reading it over and over, but can't figure out what it needs, so I decided to post it.**

**Anyways, neither of them mentioned what happened the previous night, they both just seemed to brush it off. And Daryl resorted to childish games to get Beth to eat...hey, whatever works. And I think the biggest thing in this chapter is the promise. Daryl was very reluctant to promise Beth he wouldn't tell, and he knows that he shouldn't have. He still feels horrible for not being able to keep his promise to Hershel, and he knows that something like this isn't something that you can just keep secret forever. Will he keep his promise, or will he break it? **

**Also, they made it back to the farm and have finally been reunited with the rest of their group. And, Carol is back! I figured that I might as well throw her back in the loop. **

**On a side note, I may not be posting as often as I would like in the next few weeks. It seems as if all of my professors have gotten together and decided to have exams and papers due at the same time. So, I will be focusing on good grades, but will still try to update as much as possible. I am going to try to get a new chapter up before the end of this weekend, but my sister is coming home for a visit, so I'm not sure if I will be able to.**

**Have a great week/weekend...and a little more than a week until The Walking Dead returns!**


	13. Chapter 13

Ch.13

"We all got here a few days ago. Michonne, Carl, and I were the first. When Maggie got here she made us go to the highway and write that note."

Most everyone had gathered in the dining room. Daryl could tell through the boarded up windows that the sun had set. After the initial reunions Maggie had insisted that she get Daryl and Beth something to eat and drink. Daryl was thankful for her concern, and he could feel his empty stomach beginning to growl, but Beth looked less than enthusiastic, but she followed along without complaint. Now she was sitting at the table, Maggie at her side clutching her hand and refusing to let go, with an untouched plate sitting in front of her, and Daryl was leaning against the wall, his plate of food long gone.

"We were starting to get worried. What took you guys so long?" Rick looked at Daryl.

Daryl had been informed that after they left the prison, Michonne had joined Rick and Carl. Even though Rick was injured, he made a quick recovery and continued heading for the farm. They had run into minimal trouble, just a few walkers here and there, but they had easily been taken down. Now they all wanted to know why it had taken Daryl and Beth so long to join them.

"Ran in to some trouble," he said nonchalantly, hoping they wouldn't try to dig deeper.

"Trouble? What kind?"

"Another group." He looked to Beth, who instantly stiffened by the mention of the group, but nobody else seemed to take notice. He wanted to leave it at that, but he knew by the bug-eyed expressions he wouldn't be so lucky.

"Another group? What happened?" Glenn sounded worried.

"I noticed that we were bein' followed. We started walking, tryin' to lose them, but they crept up on us."

"How many were there?"

"A few, maybe ten, eleven, twelve? Can't remember."

"What happened?"

Daryl's eyes shot to Beth, instantly meeting them. He wanted to tell them, to let them know what those men had done and how dangerous they were, and he knew that that's what he should do. But Beth's eyes were desperately pleading for him not to tell, for him to keep the promise he had made her.

"Not much. We managed to escape unharmed." He saw Beth relax a little, but the fear was still in her eyes.

"Unharmed? Beth, what happened to your cheek?"

In the chaos of their homecoming Maggie had overlooked Beth's cheek, which now looked a hundred times better than it originally had. Maggie's hand had flown to the injured cheek, and she gently turned Beth's face to look at hers so she could get a better look.

"It's nothing," Beth said quietly.

"Beth, that looks horrible!"

If only Maggie knew what the rest of Beth's body looked like. The little bruise and scratches on Beth's cheek were the least of Daryl's concerns when it came to her physical injuries.

"It's nothing, really," Beth said, pushing Maggie's hand away. "It must have happened at the prison."

"Well, it still looks bad. I'm going to have Bob look at it before you go to bed." Maggie got up, finally leaving Beth's side, before she looked down and noticed the full plate. "You should eat, you're too skinny."

As soon as everyone had cleared the room, including Beth, Daryl pulled Rick aside. He had intended to tell him the truth about the men, but abandoned that plan when Beth's face flashed in his mind. He instead decided to ask him the question that had been nagging him since he got here.

"Why's Carol here."

"Tyreese and the kids ran in to her. He was fighting off a pretty large pack of walkers, trying to get the kids somewhere safe, when they bumped into Carol."

"Does he know?"

Rick shook his head yes. "When they made it to the farm I told Tyreese."

"And he's fine with it?"

"No, not at all, but he's dealing with it. She saved them after all. He's been keeping his distance from her, and she's been doing the same to him."

After that Rick left, leaving Daryl in the kitchen alone. The plate of food Maggie had set out for Beth was still at the table; Beth hadn't even tried to make it look like she had eaten anything. Daryl walked over to it and began cleaning it up when he noticed someone standing behind him.

"Hey."

"Hey," Carol said.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, just wanted to welcome you back." There was a moment of silence and Daryl could hear as she let out a sigh. "Rick tell you?"

"Yeah."

"Are you mad?"

"Don't know."

It was the truth. He didn't know whether he should be mad. She had done what she thought was right, even though it had been horrendously wrong. And when Rick finally told him what had happened and that he had sent Carol on her way, a part of him felt bad for her and he missed her. But now he was confused. Their conversation was quickly brought to an end when Maggie and Glenn entered the room.

"Thanks."

"For what?" Daryl asked, looking at Maggie confused.

"For bringing Beth back to me unharmed. I know she isn't the easiest to put up with at times," she said sarcastically, obviously reminiscing on a happier memory.

He felt her words sting him. She wasn't unharmed. He had brought her back in worse condition than she was when they had left the prison. And now Maggie was thanking him, oblivious to the agony Beth had gone through and was currently in.

"How has she been?" She asked, sitting at the table, Glenn taking the seat beside her. "She hasn't said a word to me about it."

"Alright, I guess, considerin' what happened."

That was an understatement. Daryl was certain that nothing was alright about Beth. She looked horrible, she was barely speaking, and she was basically starving herself. On top of the obvious ailments, she was dealing with emotional trauma that nobody but Daryl knew about.

"Has she said anything about it?"

Daryl shook his head no, because she really hadn't said anything about Hershel. "She's been pretty quiet since the prison; likes to keep to herself."

He saw Maggie open her mouth to speak, but her voice was muffled by the screams piercing the air. Maggie's eyes went wide, not knowing what was happening or where the screams were coming from. Daryl knew all too well who was screaming, and before darting up the stairs, he looked at Maggie.

"Forgot to tell ya, she's been having nightmares."

* * *

Maggie didn't know what was happening. It had started out of the blue. The high-pitched screams of terror filled the air, surely waking everyone up. At first she couldn't tell where they were coming from. Was someone outside? And then Daryl spoke hurriedly.

"Forgot to tell ya, she's been having nightmares."

He darted up the stairs, and when Maggie finally put the pieces together she jumped out her chair, Glenn following in her footsteps. When she got to Beth's room she saw Daryl leaning over the bed, Beth thrashing around. She ran to her sister's side but was pushed out of the way.

"Move, you're gonna' scare her."

She watched as he lightly seized her wrists, restraining them at her side. She was expecting him to violently shake her, but he didn't. He went about the ordeal in a calm manner, as if he had done this before.

"Beth, wake up." His words were softly spoken.

Her eyes flashed open, urgently looking around the room, trying to gather her surroundings. Maggie could see the tears starting to build, and she watched as Beth's chest rose and fell in harsh, jagged breaths.

"Beth, it was just another nightmare. You're okay. You're safe."

She was in awe when Daryl pulled Beth closer, cradling her in his arms as she began to cry. They seemed oblivious to anyone else in the room.

"Shhhh, it's okay. No one is going to hurt you."

Maggie stood there, watching as Daryl continued to comfort Beth until her crying stopped. She had never known Daryl to be so tender and caring for anyone else other than Judith. It seemed that his time together with Beth had brought that same attitude out towards her.

"Beth?" Maggie asked, stepping closer. "Beth, are you alright?" She placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, who was still cradled in Daryl's arms, face obscured by his chest.

"I'm fine," she said unconvincingly, voice still wavering.

Beth was breathing heavily, and Maggie wasn't sure if that was from the crying or because she was still scared. She met Daryl's eyes, questioning what this was bout, but he didn't say anything.

**Author's Note: I realize that this chapter was a little bland, but I figured it sort of had to be there since everyone would be wondering what happened to Daryl and Beth since their escape from the prison. I promise that the next chapter will be more interesting!**

**Also, I plan on writing a chapter for "A Fighting Chance" sometime this week before I start writing the next chapter of "Ruined," which you can expect either this weekend or early next week. Sorry for the delayed updating, but these next few weeks are going to be hectic for me.**

**And, six days until The Walking Dead returns!**

**Thanks for all of the reviews!**


	14. Chapter 14

Ch.14

Beth hadn't had a nightmare in years. The last time Maggie could remember her having a nightmare was when Beth was seven. Maggie had been watching _Halloween_ and Beth had snuck down from her room, curling up next to Maggie on the couch. She knew that she should have told Beth to go back upstairs, but she hadn't, and that night Beth had woke the whole house up crying. Maggie had gotten a stern lecture from her daddy about letting Beth watch a scary movie, and Beth had slept with the lights on for a month straight.

But this nightmare was different, and Maggie couldn't figure out why. She had never seen anyone look so terrified. Once Daryl had left the room Maggie had stayed, waiting for Beth to go to sleep. It hadn't taken her long. She could tell by the dark circles under her eyes that Beth was exhausted and deprived of sleep.

When Maggie exited the room she left the door cracked. Glenn was waiting outside leaning against the wall.

"Is she alright?"

"She's sleeping now, but I don't know if she's alright. Where's Daryl?"

"He went back to his room. I don't remember her having nightmares back at the prison."

"That's because she didn't. Hasn't had them in ages, not since she was a little kid. Must be stress related, with everything that's happened lately."

Glenn started walking towards their room, but stopped and turned around when he noticed Maggie wasn't following him. "You coming?"

"You go ahead. I'm going to stay out here for a few minutes, make sure she doesn't wake back up."

Maggie couldn't remember how long she had stayed outside Beth's room, but she eventually fell asleep, waking up to find that it was morning. She peeked through the cracked door to see that Beth was still fast asleep. She seemed so much more peaceful than she had last night.

Her growling stomach made her go to the kitchen and start preparing breakfast. She knew that everyone would start getting up soon, and she figured making breakfast was the least she could do. They didn't have much. They had whatever was left in the house when they had abandoned it, the food Beth and Daryl had brought with them, and a few other things that everyone else had managed to gather on their way here.

Within minutes of starting breakfast she began to hear the shuffle of sleepy feet making their way down the hall upstairs. It was Beth. She still had dark circles under her eyes and the bruise on her cheek still had Maggie worried. Bob had looked at it last night and said it would be fine, but Maggie still worried about it; it looked like it hurt.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Are you hungry?"

She didn't wait for Beth to answer. She set a bowl of oatmeal down and pulled the chair out for Beth to sit. She wanted to bring up last night, but she wasn't sure how to.

"So about last night," she stated calmly, testing the waters.

"It was nothing," Beth hurriedly interjected.

"Beth, that didn't seem like nothing; you about gave me a heart attack. I think you should talk abo-" Maggie was interrupted by Beth.

"There's nothing to talk about."

Beth was raising her voice, and Maggie was shocked by Beth's sudden outburst. Beth had always been calm and levelheaded in even the most stressful situations.

"It was just a dream. There's nothing to talk about. I'm fine."

Maggie was about to say something else, but stopped herself when Daryl walked in the room. His hair was a mess, but he didn't seem to care.

"Mornin'," his voice was rough, still groggy from sleep.

"Morning," Maggie said, getting up to get him breakfast.

Daryl took the seat directly across from Beth. He looked at her with a worried expression on his face, and it seemed as if he was studying her. Maggie brushed it off, assuming he was still thinking of the events of last night.

"Get any sleep?" He asked, obviously directing his question to Beth.

Beth avoided eye contact with him and only nodded her head.

"You should eat," he said, gesturing to the oatmeal.

Beth took a few bites before she got up from her seat. Walking over to the counter she set the bowl down and left the room without saying a single word. Maggie was puzzled by Beth's behavior, but figured it had to do with the nightmare she had had.

* * *

Beth had been avoiding him all day. Whenever he would enter the same room as her she would walk out. He wanted to talk to her, to ask her if she was alright, but she was making it nearly impossible. He needed to clear his head, to get some time away from everyone, so he decided to go hunting.

The woods always seemed to be an escape for him, someplace where he could let all of his worries go. But lately they seemed like a prison. Being alone with his thoughts made him sick to his stomach. The sounds of Beth screaming seemed to fill the silent air around him.

He wondered whether he'd done the right thing keeping his promise to her and not telling anyone what had happened. But how could he tell them the truth? How could he face Maggie and tell her what had happened to her little sister? He was supposed to protect her, keep her safe, after all, and he had let her down.

His thoughts were interrupted when a walker ambled in front of him. He aimed to shoot it and the arrow went straight through its skull. He went to get the arrow, and noticing the position of the sun, decided it was time to start heading back.

By the time he got back dinner was already cooked and had been served. Someone had set aside a plate for him, and Daryl didn't think twice before digging in. Scanning the room he didn't see Beth; he hadn't seen her since bumping into her outside just before leaving. She had quickly turned and walked the other way. He figured that she was somewhere with Maggie.

Taking a seat on the couch he began to clean his crossbow. It was dirty from the neglect he had been paying it over the last few days; he hadn't gotten around to cleaning it since the prison. He paid no attention when people started heading to their rooms.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting there. He had finished cleaning his crossbow a while ago, and the house was dark except for a few candles dimly lighting the room. His eyes were shut, his head leaning back on the couch, but he was still very much awake. His attention was grabbed by the creak of a floorboard and a soft voice.

"I can't sleep."

Beth was standing there, the poor lighting from the candles casting strange shadows on her slim figure. He could tell from her slumped posture that she was tired, and he assumed that the nightmares were keeping her awake. He motioned for her to join him on the couch, and she rested her head on his lap. Within minutes she was sleeping.

He knew that they couldn't stay there all night, so he carefully got up from underneath her. Putting an arm underneath her knees and the other around her back, he gently lifted her off of the couch. Beth nestled her head on his chest and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. She didn't wake.

He knew that she was small, but holding her in his arms he realized how tiny she actually was. She barely weighed anything, and Daryl had no problem carrying her to her room. He gingerly laid her in her bed so as to not wake her, and pulled the covers over her. He went to leave but stopped when he heard her speak.

"Please don't leave. The nightmares will start again."

He had never heard someone sound so weak, so scared. He walked over to the bed and sat down on the floor. When her hand reached down over the bed he took it in his.

"Beth, we can't keep doing this." His voice was low and taut. He knew that she wouldn't like what he was going to say, but he had to say it. "I can't stay in your room with you every night. People will start to get suspicious; Maggie will get suspicious. We should tell them what happened."

"No." Her voice was small but powerful.

"Beth, Maggie will know what to do. She needs to know. She's your sister, she needs to know what happened."

"No."

"She'll be able to do more for you than I can. I-I don't know how to make you feel better. Heck, if it weren't for me none of this would have happened. We need to tell them, Beth."

"No, Daryl, you promised me. You promised me that you wouldn't tell." Her voice was wavering and Daryl could tell that she was crying. "I don't want Maggie to know, I don't want anyone to know. Please don't tell them."

Daryl took a deep breath. "Okay."

They sat there in silence for what seemed like forever. Daryl thought that Beth was asleep, but then she started to talk again.

"Every time I close my eyes it's like it's happening all over again. I just want it to stop. I want to forget what happened."

Daryl wasn't sure how to respond. Sure, he had been through the wringer plenty of times during his childhood, but the abuse became normal for him. Daryl knew that Beth had never been witness to something so violent before, and he knew that she had never been at the receiving end of such violence until recently.

"You know, when I first met you on the farm, I thought you were just some scared little girl. I didn't think you had a chance in this world. But you've grown; you've become strong. You're a survivor, Beth. You've become a fine young woman; Hershel would be proud of you." Daryl paused, squeezing Beth's hand a little tighter before continuing. "I can't even begin to imagine the pain you're going through, but you can't let it win. You have to stay strong; you have to fight. I'm not going to tell you that you'll forget what happened, because something like that stays with you forever, but you'll learn to move on, to grow from it. You just have to keep fighting until it gets better."

He continued to hold her hand, and had every intention to leave the room after she was asleep. But before he knew it his heavy eyes gave way and sleep won over.

**Author's Note: Sorry for the longer than usual wait. Life has been keeping me very busy lately. **

**So last chapter there really weren't any Daryl/Beth moments, and the beginning of this chapter sort of lacked them, too. But I really liked the ending. Daryl is really struggling with the promise he made Beth. He thinks that they should tell the others, but Beth refuses to let him do so. He has absolutely no idea what to do with her, but I thought what he said at the end was really sweet.**

**And, today is finally the day...The Walking Dead is back in 7 1/2 hours! I'm too excited for the new episode.**

**And, I would love to hear what you thought of this chapter. Reviews are always greatly appreciated!**


	15. Chapter 15

Ch.15

Maggie woke to Glenn tangled around her. The sun was shining through the crack in the curtain, and she figured it was time for her to get up. Untangling herself from his body, she got out of the bed and started heading down the hallway. She paused when she got to Beth's room. Opening it carefully, making sure not to make any noise, she peeked her head in, surprised by what she saw.

She had expected to see her sister, yes, but she hadn't expected to see Daryl. He was sitting beside her bed, his head resting against the bed and his hand laced with Beth's. She tried to make sense of what was happening, but for the life of her couldn't figure out why Daryl had slept in Beth's room. She brushed the thought away and went to the kitchen. Sasha and Rick were already up.

"Mornin'."

Maggie gave a slight smile and went to join them at the table, her mind still trying to make sense of the scene in her sister's room. She didn't have much time to think about it before both Daryl and Beth entered the room. She eyed them suspiciously, but didn't say anything.

* * *

Beth had been put on baby duty again. She wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but she couldn't say no when Rick had asked her at breakfast. She had wanted to stay by Daryl, but Beth knew that saying no to watching Judith would draw questioning stares, and she very much wanted to stay under the radar. Maybe being around Judith would be good; maybe it would allow her mind to focus on something different. Back at the prison she loved being around Judith, it was almost therapeutic, like a sort of escape. But things had obviously changed since the prison; and any ounce of escape Judith had once offered was now gone.

It had started out fine. Judith was all smiles and giggles, but she must have sensed that something was wrong, because as soon as Beth picked her up she started crying. The baby kept crying, her wails piercing Beth's ears. She tried everything to calm her down, but nothing seemed to work. She tried singing her a lullaby, one of the songs she always used to sing to her, but it didn't work. She bounced her on her hip, but her crying only grew louder and louder.

Beth began to panic, her heart started racing and she started to get dizzy. Judith's cries slowly transformed into her own cries, as a flood of emotions raced through her body and memories she wanted so badly to forget invaded her mind. She felt as if she were going to collapse; this was all too much, she just wanted to leave and runaway and never look back. She sat Judith in her crib and crumpled to her knees, her hands covering her ears.

Her chest was tight and it was becoming difficult to breath. She tried to pull herself back together, knowing that someone could walk in the room any minute now, and then she would be forced to explain herself. She tried thinking of something else, anything else, but the bad memories kept winning.

* * *

"Have you noticed Daryl and Beth spending a lot of time together today?" Maggie still couldn't get the two of them off of her mind. After breakfast this morning Beth had stayed right by Daryl, following him like a shadow. The last few days it had seemed like Beth had gone out of her way to avoid any contact with the man, and now it was like she was doing anything to stay by him. Maggie just couldn't figure it out.

"Yeah, kind of. Why?" Glenn responded.

"Daryl was in Beth's room this morning. They were holding hands." She looked to Glenn, and when she saw confusion and anger flash in his eyes she quickly added, "He was on the floor, she was in the bed."

"Have you talked to her about it?"

"No. I don't want to push her, not if she isn't ready to talk about what happened back at the prison."

"Maybe she needs to be pushed to talk about it."

"Maybe," Maggie said, as she made her way back to the house.

She knew that Beth was watching Judith. Rick had asked her earlier today if she would watch the baby when he went out hunting with Daryl. That had been her main job at the prison, and it had come natural to her, almost as if it was something she was meant to do. Sure, Carol was good with Judith, but nobody seemed to have the same connection with the baby as Beth did. When Judith would get in one of her moods, Beth was the only one who could calm her.

That's why when she walked into the house and heard crying she was confused. It sounded like two separate people crying. But only one of the sounds caught her attention; the sobs weren't high pitched like a babies, but they sounded like they were coming from somebody much older than Judith, and the only other person inside the house was Beth.

Maggie walked towards the sound and stopped just outside of the room, listening for a moment before peering inside. Beth was crouched down on the floor, her hands covering her ears and tears running down her face. Judith was in her crib crying as well. Maggie moved just an inch and a floorboard creaked, catching Beth's attention and causing Maggie to step back out of sight. She waited a moment before walking into the room.

Beth was now standing and she quickly wiped any remaining tears away. She was trying to hide the fact that she had been crying, but her stuttering inhalations gave her away. Maggie walked over to the crib and picked Judith up, and the child instantly quieted down. Maggie returned her attention to the broken girl in front of her.

"You ok?"

The distant, far-off look in Beth's eyes told her that something was wrong, but Beth didn't seem willing to provide any details or even answer her question. Instead she just stood there, her eyes trained on the ground and her chest rising with her shaking breaths.

"You wanna talk?"

Beth shook her head no.

Maggie sighed. "Beth, what's been going on with you? Is it daddy? The prison?"

Once again Beth didn't answer. Judith had fallen asleep so Maggie laid her back in the crib. She then walked over to the couch, and patted the seat next to her, motioning for Beth to take it.

"You want to tell me what's going on between you and Daryl? I saw him in your room this morning."

Beth's watery gaze finally met Maggie's. "He keeps the nightmares away."

It was barely audible, just above a whisper, but Maggie caught it, and it broke her heart. Her voice sounded exactly as it did when she was just a little girl and scared. She hadn't asked Beth about the nightmare she had had the first night she was here, and from the little she had learned from Daryl and what Beth had just given away, the nightmares seemed to be plaguing her sleep.

Maggie just nodded her head in response. She wasn't sure how to respond to Beth. She wanted to ask her more, try to get Beth to open up to her, but she knew Beth wasn't going to go for that. Doing the only other thing she could think of, she wrapped her arms around her sister and held her tight, taken aback when she felt Beth flinch at her touch.

**Author's Note: I hope you all liked the chapter. It's not my favorite, but it is needed. Beth sort of had a breakdown, and Maggie was there to witness some of it. Maggie thinks Beth is just struggling to deal with the loss of Hershel and the prison, but boy is she wrong. **

**And, who else is extremely excited for tonight's all new episode of The Walking Dead? We are finally going to get to see Daryl and Beth!**


	16. Chapter 16

Ch.16

Beth was following Daryl around again today; lately it seemed as if she was practically his shadow, but Daryl didn't mind. If his company is what she needed, then his company was going to be what she got. He had slept in her room again last night, it was almost like an unspoken agreement they had between them; Beth couldn't sleep without him by her side, the nightmares would overwhelm her.

Still, everything about the situation he found himself in felt wrong. Whenever he looked at Beth all he could see was the pain that was taking over her; she was slowly descending in a downwards spiral. He wanted nothing more than to take it all away, to mold her back into the person she used to be, but he knew he couldn't do it.

He had found himself wanting to tell Maggie again. In fact, he almost had last night when Maggie had approached him after Beth had gone to her room.

"Hey, Daryl, can I talk to you real quick?"

Daryl had been a little suspicious. Lately whenever anyone wanted to talk to him he would instantly jump to the conclusion that they knew what had happened. But, none of them ever had any inkling of what Beth had gone through.

"I saw you in Beth's room last night. I talked to Beth about it." She paused.

Oh God, she either knows what happened or she thinks I'm taking advantage of her little sister. Either way, I'm about to get a slap to the face.

"She said you keep the nightmares away."

Another pause. Daryl's heart sank. He was almost hoping that Maggie knew, even if it meant she would hate Daryl for the rest of her life.

"I just wanted to thank you. She seems to me more open with you than she is with me nowadays."

Maggie had begun to turn, and before he even knew what he was doing, Daryl had opened his mouth and started talking.

"Maggie, wait."

His hand reached out and lightly grasped her arm, stopping her from going any further. He saw as Maggie looked at him with a confused expression on her face. How does he say this? How does he tell her that they didn't just escape from that group unscathed, that more had happened and Beth had bore the brunt of the men's anger? It would break Maggie's heart, and any trust Beth had in him would be gone.

He must have stayed there for a while, just looking at Maggie, trying to decide if he should say anything or not.

"What?"

Daryl searched her face, trying to find an answer, trying to decide if what he was doing was the right thing. "Never mind. It's nothin'."

And with that the conversation had ended. Maggie retreated to her room with Glenn, and Daryl had been left standing there in silence, wondering if he had made the right decision.

Now, sitting at the kitchen table with Beth beside him, the question still lingered in his mind. He was eating lunch, and Beth was preparing a bottle and some food for Judith. Something felt off, something wasn't right about the way she was holding herself today. She seemed on edge, more fragile than ever, like she was going to break at any moment.

* * *

Maggie was in the kitchen with Glenn, Daryl, and Beth. She had tried to get Beth to eat something, but she refused, instead busying herself with preparing lunch for Judith. She wasn't talking much today, in fact, the only word she had spoken was "no" when Maggie had set a plate of food down in front of her.

She had only seen her sister a few times today. She had been trailing behind Daryl for reasons she just couldn't explain. She figured they had grown closer since Daryl had been the only other person Beth had after the prison, but it was like Beth was isolating herself from everyone else. The only people she interacted with were Daryl and Maggie, every once in a while she'd flash a fake smile at Rick when she took Judith from him. But aside from that, she was being very antisocial.

Maggie was watching her sister closely, trying to figure out what was going on inside of her head. Beth was wearing a tank top today, and through her mess of blonde hair, Maggie began to see the faint mark of a bruise. It was a yellowish green color; it had obviously been pretty bad, but it was almost done healing. If this had been a few years ago, Maggie would have been concerned, but now they lived in a world where bruises were inevitable; they decorated everyone's skin like tattoos, and she figures the bruise had happened during the attack on the prison, nobody had come out of that completely injury free.

Maggie was broke from her thoughts when an aggravated sigh was released from Beth's lips. She walked over to stand across from Beth, trying to see what was going on. Beth was trying to screw the cap on Judith's bottle, but for some reason she couldn't get it. That's when Maggie noticed Beth's trembling hands. They were shaking so badly, but for no apparent reason. Maggie looked to Beth's face, and she instantly saw the frustration etched into every inch of her face. Her eyebrows were scrunched, and every muscle in her face was tensed.

"Here, do you need help?"

Beth didn't answer. She stopped what she was doing for a second, closed her eyes tightly, and scrunched her hands into fists. Maggie saw the way her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands, and she was almost certain Beth was going to draw blood. But then she stopped and went back to working on the bottle. Such a simple task was proving to be such a huge problem for her.

"Beth, let me help you, " she said as she began reaching for the bottle.

Beth immediately looked up at her. Maggie saw the anger in her eyes, and for the briefest of seconds she was scared of what was going to happen next.

"I can do it myself, I don't need your help!" Beth snapped, her voice echoing through the room.

Shock was written on everyone's faces as both Daryl and Glenn turned their attention to Beth. None of them had ever seen Beth act like this; it was completely out of character for her. Beth seemed to ignore them as she returned her attention to the bottle.

"Beth," Maggie began, looking on at her sister with worry.

Beth didn't respond again. Her shaking hands were still trying to screw the cap on the bottle, but to no avail. Maggie could sense that Beth's frustration was growing with every passing second. And then she snapped.

The bottle went flying across the room, milk splattering on the wall and the bottle crashing to the floor with a clank. Tears started to trail down Beth's face, and now it wasn't only her hands that were shaking, her whole body was.

The whole room was silent and everything seemed to stand still. Nobody could make sense of what had just happened. And then everything caught up for Maggie.

"Beth, what the hell was that?" She didn't like to curse at her sister, but she couldn't help herself.

Beth got up from the table and went to where the bottle was lying on the floor. She began to pick it up and grabbed a washcloth and started soaking up the milk. Maggie looked from Glenn to Daryl, both of whom were intently watching Beth's every move. Maggie was fed up with this. Something was obviously bothering Beth, and she wasn't talking about it.

Maggie marched over to her sister and grabbed her by the wrist. She felt as Beth's body went stiff and she flinched away, trying to yank her wrist free. When her eyes met Maggie's there was a storm cloud of emotions in them. Anger, frustration, sadness, emptiness. But there was something else in her eyes, something that made Maggie loosen her grip, something that made her stomach drop. Fear.

It was an overpowering fear. And it just wasn't showing in her eyes. When Maggie looked at Beth's face every feature gave off the emotion of fear. The way her bottom lip quivered despite Beth biting it trying to make it stop. The way her eyebrows were raised. The way the tears began gathering in her eyes once again, and then one escaped and made its way down her face.

Maggie turned to the others; their expressions hadn't changed from a few moments ago. "Excuse us, I need to have a word with Beth."

Maggie turned to face her sister again, once again tightening the grasp on her wrist, and began walking. She felt Beth trying to resist, trying to pull away, but Maggie wasn't having any of this. There were things that they obviously needed to talk about, things they needed to get to the bottom of. Maggie wasn't going to let Beth avoid her anymore.

**Author's Note: So I really liked this chapter. When I started writing it I didn't intend to it end how it did; it was going to be completely different. But my fingers started taking on a mind of their own as I was writing, and this is how the chapter turned out. I was going to make it longer, but I decided to stop here, to sort of leave you with a cliffhanger. **

**As you can see, Daryl is still struggling with his decision to keep Beth's secret. Beth is beginning to act out, and Maggie is taking notice. Maggie knows something is going on with Beth, but she has absolutely no idea what Beth has gone through.**

**What did you think of the chapter? Did you like it? What do you think will happen next?**

**Thank you for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! **

**And, who's excited for The Walking Dead tonight?!**


	17. Chapter 17

Ch.17

Maggie dragged Beth to the room farthest down the hall, Beth trying to break free of her grasp the whole way there. Maggie didn't let go until they were in the room and she had shut the door behind them. She positioned herself between Beth and the door, affectively trapping Beth in the room with no way of leaving.

"You want to tell me what the hell that was in there?"

Beth just stood there, her eyes trained on the floor.

"Beth, I'm talking to you."

Beth didn't move. Maggie wasn't even sure if Beth had even registered anything she was saying. She looked blank. Any emotion she had had a few moments ago was now gone, replaced by someone who appeared completely empty.

"Beth," Maggie took a step forward. "Beth, do you hear me?"

"Of course I hear you; I'm not deaf!" Beth raised her voice, her eyes finally looking up from the floor.

"What is going on with you?" She was yelling now. "You haven't been acting like yourself since you got here."

Silence. Beth made a move towards the door, but Maggie backed up until her back was touching it.

"Beth, we're not leaving until you talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." Beth looked Maggie straight in the eye. "Just let me out."

She tried to reach around Maggie to the door handle, but Maggie grabbed her hand.

"Let me go!" Beth yelled, pulling her arm away.

"Is this about daddy? Beth, I know what you're going through. I know it's hard, you need to talk about it."

"You have absolutely no idea what I'm going through." Her voice was detached, like it didn't belong to her.

"Well then tell me."

"There's nothing to tell."

"I don't believe that. You can't keep everything bottled up inside, Beth, it's going to eat you."

"Well then that's my problem, not yours."

Maggie stood there speechless, looking Beth directly in the eyes. She was unable to move. Beth took this opportunity to push Maggie out of the way and walk out of the room.

* * *

Daryl sat there, the screams wafting in from down the hall. They were fighting. Well, at least Maggie was. If Beth was saying anything she wasn't yelling, which led Daryl to assume that she hadn't said a word.

Glenn was sitting across from him, his fingers fidgeting with themselves. Daryl could tell he was trying to decide what to do. He knew that he wanted to go in the room with Maggie, to try to calm her down, but Daryl also knew that Glenn was smart enough not to interfere with Maggie when she was angry, it would be a losing battle.

"Have you ever made a promise?"

Glenn looked up at him. "What?"

"Have you ever made a promise? And I don't mean some stupid pointless little promise, I mean a promise that would change everything?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?"

Daryl could tell that Glenn was distracted by the argument taking place down the hall, but he could also tell that he was interested in where this conversation was going. Daryl Dixon was not the kind of guy to have deep conversations.

"No reason, just wondering." He paused, trying to figure out if he should even ask his next question, already knowing what the answer would be. "Have you ever broken a promise?"

"No, never. When I make a promise I keep it."

Before Daryl even had time to process what Glenn had said, he heard a door open and heavy footsteps coming down the hall. Beth rushed past them and up the stairs. Maggie finally returned to the kitchen a few minutes after.

"Is everything ok?" Glenn asked.

"No. I don't know what's going on with her. It's like that person isn't even Beth. I don't know what to do with her anymore."

"Maybe she just needs a little space. Maybe she just needs to figure things out on her own."

Maggie gave him a small smile that wasn't very reassuring. Then she turned her attention to Daryl.

"Has she told you anything? Do you know why she's been acting like this?"

Here was his chance. It was the perfect opportunity to get everything off of his chest. The perfect opportunity to do what he knew he should, what he knew he had to.

"No, she ain't told me nothin'."

Daryl could have punched himself in the face. He knew that he should have told the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to. He couldn't bring himself to break the promise he had made her, even if it meant it would prevent her from healing.

"I just figured since you two have been spending a lot of time together, maybe she told you something."

"Nah, she don't talk much."

"Do you think you could stop staying in her room at night? I know she has nightmares, but I think I can handle it."

"Yeah, fine, whatever."

"Thanks."

That's how Daryl ended up sitting on the couch after everyone had already gone to bed. Beth hadn't come out of her room since earlier that day. He was waiting; he knew it was going to start any minute now. He knew her sleep would be plagued with the nightmares that, for reasons he couldn't understand, only he could fight off. And he knew that he would have to stand by and listen this time; that he wouldn't be able to help.

As if on cue, her screams echoed from upstairs. He heard the rustling of feet as Maggie got up and went to Beth's room. He wondered what she was going to do. Waking her up was the easy part, anyone could do it, but calming her down was the challenge, reassuring her that the monsters in her dreams couldn't get her was near impossible. And that task was going to be even harder for Maggie since she had absolutely no idea what those monsters were.

Daryl began pacing the room. He could hear Beth's shaky sobs wafting down from upstairs. He could hear the muffled words Maggie said as she tried to calm her sister down. Nothing was working. After what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, Daryl rushed upstairs to Beth's room.

Maggie was holding Beth tightly, Beth's body trembling with every sob. Soothing words were being whispered to her, but Beth wasn't hearing them. Daryl walked up to the two, and Maggie looked to him before moving away, allowing Daryl to take her place. Daryl wrapped his arms around Beth, pulling her close. Her body tensed at his touch, but when she realized who it was, she instantly relaxed.

"It's ok. I'm here now."

"Don't ever leave me again. Please."

She was pleading with him. She was scared. She was scared that he had left her, that he had forgotten about her.

"I'm not ever going to leave you, Beth. I'm here. I promise."

**Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter is a little late. I've been a very busy person! I plan to update "A Fighting Chance" either tomorrow or Friday.**

**Anyways, Daryl is once again struggling with the promise he made to Beth. He knows that he should tell Maggie, in fact he almost does, but he just can't bring himself to do it, even if he knows not telling anyone is only hurting Beth.**

**Beth is acting out. She isn't acting herself, and it's really concerning Maggie. Maggie's trying to get Beth to open up to her, she's trying to get her talk, but nothing she does works. Beth is very much isolating herself from everyone; she's pushing everyone away…everyone but Daryl, that is.**

**And who else thought that Sunday's episode was amazing? I know I loved it!**


	18. Chapter 18

Ch.18

Maggie was lying in her bed with Glenn. After Daryl had came to Beth's room she had waited around until Daryl had practically forced her to move just by scowling at her. She still couldn't figure it out. Daryl and Beth had never been close, and then all of a sudden he's the only person she wanted.

"I just don't get it."

"What?" Glenn asked her.

Maggie turned to him, a little surprised. "What?" She asked, confused. She didn't realize that she had said anything aloud.

"What don't you get?"

"Daryl and Beth."

"I wouldn't think too much into it. They were together after the prison; he was the only person she had. They were probably just forced to get closer to each other."

"I know, it's just, she's never acted this way before. She's acting like…like…I don't even know what. It's just so uncharacteristic of Beth. And she refuses to talk to me about anything, so I have no idea what's going on with her."

"Hey, just let her be. She'll work things out. Right now you should just get some sleep."

Maggie smiled and rested her head on Glenn's chest, her eyes growing heavy. Before she knew it the sun was shining in through the window. She nudged Glenn until he was awake and lightly kissed him on the lips before walking out of the room. She decided to peek into Beth's room, expecting her to still be asleep, but she wasn't in there. She then went to the kitchen. Rick, Sasha, and Carol were sitting at the table talking.

"Hey, have you seen Beth?"

"I think she's outside with Daryl," Sasha responded.

"Thanks."

Maggie began walking towards the door, but stopped when she heard Carol start talking.

"Hey, Maggie? Is everything alright with Beth? I've noticed that she's been on edge lately, a little jumpy."

"Honestly, I don't really know."

Before they could ask any more questions she walked out the door. It didn't take her long to find Daryl and Beth. They were down by the truck, and it looked like they were talking. She started heading towards them, and jumped when she felt someone grab her from behind. Glenn.

"Where are you going?"

"Daryl and Beth. Just going to see if they need help with anything."

Maggie continued walking towards them, and Glenn followed. As they got closer the two of them stopped talking. Whatever it was they were talking about, it was apparent they didn't want anyone else to hear.

"Hey!" Maggie said.

Daryl grunted in response, and Beth gave what could barely be considered a smile.

"What are you guys doing out here so early?"

"We were just talkin'."

"About what?"

"Nothin' in particular."

Maggie looked to Beth, who had taken a few steps back and was now looking at the ground and fiddling with her fingers, something she always did when she had something on her mind. There were a few moments of awkward silence, and then the low guttural moan of a walker could be heard approaching. Maggie reached for her knife, but before she even had time to pull it out, Beth was running towards the walker.

Maggie watched, a little shocked at her sister's sudden change, as Beth stabbed her knife into the walker's head. Her shock instantly turned to horror as the walker went down and Beth didn't back away. She watched as Beth stabbed the walker over and over again. She could practically feel the rage radiating from Beth's body, and she didn't know what to do.

She saw out of the corner of her eye as someone moved. It was Daryl. He ran over to Beth and caught her arm before it could jab the knife into the dead walker again. She tried to fight back, but the knife fell from her hand and Daryl pulled her away from the body.

* * *

Daryl was horrified when he saw Beth continuously stabbing the walker. He knew she was angry, and it was partly his fault, but he had never seen her act this way; he had never seen anybody act this way. Without giving it a second thought, he rushed to her side and pulled her away.

Maggie and Glenn were standing there, staring at Beth, and not knowing what to do. He looked to Beth. She was covered in blood. If he hadn't been there to see what had happened, he would have thought that someone had brutally murdered her.

"I'm gonna' take her inside, get her cleaned up."

Maggie shook head, still too shocked to form any actual words.

Daryl led Beth up to the bathroom connected to her bedroom. He filled the sink up with water and grabbed a washcloth. He looked at her again. Her hands and arms were coated in a thick layer of the walker's blood. Crimson speckles dotted her face, and a rust colored streak was drying on her temple.

He carefully took the washcloth and began to wipe away the blood on her face. She flinched and backed away, but Daryl held her steady in place. When he finished with her face, he moved on to her hands, slowly working his way up her arms until the blood gave way to her pale skin. The water in the sink was a deep red by now.

He turned away from her and dropped the washcloth back in the sink. When he turned around he watched as Beth peeled the bloodied shirt from her body, seemingly unaware of Daryl's presence. She went to the sink and began scrubbing the shirt.

He took this chance to glance at the bruises that still painted her body. Where they once had been deep shades of purple and blue, they were now a yellow color. They were healing, but Beth wasn't.

Beth continued to scrub away at her shirt, but Daryl knew it wouldn't do any good. He knew that Beth wasn't seeing the shirt and bloodied water; he knew that she wasn't trying to get the stains out. One look at her cold, dead eyes and anyone could tell that there was something else playing out in Beth's head, and Daryl was the only other person who knew what that story was.

He heard somebody coming up the stairs, and he removed his jacket and draped it on her thin shoulders, covering the majority of the bruises. When he glanced at her face again he saw the silent tears. The room suddenly felt heavy, too heavy to handle. And though neither of them was making any noise, he had never heard silence this loud.

Beth's hands were turning pink from her scrubbing so hard. Daryl walked over to her and covered her hands with his, making her stop what she was doing. She didn't look at him, though; her eyes remained glued to the red water.

"Beth?" He whispered.

She didn't respond.

"Beth?"

Her bottom lip trembled, and Daryl could tell that she was trying to stop herself from completely falling apart. Tears were still running down her face, landing in the sink and making the water ripple. Then he watched as she finally broke.

Daryl caught her as her legs gave way and he pulled her close to him. Uncontrollable sobs began wracking her body. She had been trying to hold herself together for so long that everything was now crashing down on her.

"I'm here. It's ok. You're gonna be ok."

They were now both on the bathroom floor, and he was cradling her like a parent would a small child. Her head was buried into his chest, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. He knew now what he had to do. He knew that he couldn't keep this a secret any longer. And he knew that what he was going to do would cause Beth to hate him, and it would break his heart.

**Author's Note: Ok, so I realize that I just updated "Ruined" Wednesday, but I had a lot of time on my hands today and felt like writing. So, I decided to start writing Ch.18, and once I started I couldn't stop.**

**This chapter turned out completely different than I had intended, but I absolutely love it. It is probably one of my favorite chapters so far! It kind of started out a little slow, but I think it definitely picked up the pace.**

**Beth took out all of her anger and everything she has been keep bottled up inside on that walker. Daryl had to pull her off of it. And then Daryl cleans the blood off of her and she breaks down. I'm not sure if I did her breakdown and Daryl's reaction justice...I can't tell, but I really hope that I did. I wanted it to be really emotional, almost like the weight of the world finally came crashing down on Beth and she just couldn't handle it anymore and, even though she is still trying to keep her composure, she finally breaks. Her breakdown leads Daryl to come to a critical conclusion, something that will change the rest of the story. **

**The ending is something that even I hadn't expected. I didn't think that I would have Daryl come to the conclusion that he needs to tell someone the truth about what happened to Beth for another few chapters. But as I was writing this chapter, it just felt right, so I decided to end it with him finally coming to that conclusion.**

**So, what did you think of this chapter? Did you like it? Did you expect that ending?**


	19. Chapter 19

Ch.19

Daryl held Beth for what seemed like hours. The footsteps he had heard coming up the stairs had been Maggie. She had come to check on Beth and help her get cleaned up only to find Beth wailing on the ground and curled up into Daryl's embrace with his jacket still covering her half-naked torso. When she saw the scene playing out before her she didn't even raise an eyebrow. She just stared at Daryl, concern written all over her face, but she didn't ask any questions, and for that Daryl was thankful. After staring at them for a few minutes she had quietly walked out of the room, and Daryl was certain that Beth hadn't even noticed her sister's presence.

When Beth finally calmed down, Daryl carried her to the bed. She was exhausted. He could tell by the way her head rested heavily against his chest. He knew by her heavy and drooping eyelids with dark shades of purple painted under her eyes. She needed sleep, and he needed to do something that he was dreading.

Maggie was sitting with Glenn on the couch, their hands entwined. They were speaking lowly to each other, and Daryl knew that the topic of conversation was Beth. Rick was rocking Judith to sleep, Carl standing next him holding her bottle. It didn't seem that any of them had noticed Daryl standing there, and for a moment he thought about retreating back upstairs. He knew that what he had to say would change everything. He took a deep breath, the butterflies fluttering around in his stomach like never before.

"Maggie, Rick, can I talk to you real quick." They both looked to him. "In private; it's important."

They were motionless for a moment, trying to figure out what was so important that it had to be said in private, and why only the two of them were needed. Rick handed Judith to Carl, and Maggie gave Glenn a quick kiss on the lips. Daryl led them to the nearest bedroom, and Daryl started to close the door behind them, leaving it cracked just a little. Maggie sat down on the bed, Rick standing a few feet from her. Daryl stood all the way across the room. He hated what he was about to do.

"What is it?" Rick asked.

Daryl didn't say anything. He was trying to convince himself that what he was doing was the right thing, but another part of him was trying to convince him that he needed to keep his promise.

"Daryl, you ok?" Rick asked.

"I wasn't completely honest when I told you about that group we ran in to." He ran his shaky fingers through his hair, and then rubbed his neck, trying to figure out what to say next. "It wasn't an easy escape, they didn't just let us go." He paused a moment, taking a deep breath and looking at Maggie. "They surrounded us, grabbed Beth and held a knife to her neck. They knocked me out before I could do anything else." He turned his attention to the ground, wanting so much to avoid telling them his next words, but he knew that he had to. "When I woke up my hands were tied behind my back, and I heard screaming. I couldn't see Beth. And then I realized the screams were hers. They raped her."

The room was silent, and he managed to look up to gauge their reactions. They looked stunned. Maggie looked as if someone had just ripped her heart right from her chest; her face was five shades paler and he couldn't tell if she was breathing. Rick rubbed his face, something he did when he got bad news or wasn't sure what to do.

"I would have told you guys sooner, but she made me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone. And then I saw what she did today and how she was upstairs, and I knew that I had to tell."

He looked at them again. He would have tried to avoid Maggie's eyes, but there was a distance in them that made him wonder if she was even really here with them, if she had even heard what he had said. The normally confident and put together Rick looked more defeated than he had ever seen him; his posture slightly slouched.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of blond hair through the crack in the door. He heard the shuffle of running feet and the front door slam shut. He instantly knew that it was Beth. She had heard everything.

Without thinking he rushed out of the room and onto the front porch. He saw Beth speed walking, and Daryl ran to catch up to her. He was yelling her name, but she wasn't turning around. He reached out and snatched her wrist, giving it a little tug that turned her to face him; she flinched when she felt another person grabbing her. She was crying. And then she was trying to break free of his grasp, but he was stronger than her, and he wasn't going to let her go. He needed to explain himself.

"Beth, Beth, calm down."

"How could you? You promised, Daryl; you promised you wouldn't tell anyone!" She was yelling, and he was sure everyone could hear them. "Just let me go," she yelled again.

She struggled against his hold, but it was a weak fight, her body still exhausted from the events of the day. Then she stopped. She looked Daryl directly in the eye; blue eyes meeting blue eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time. But something about this time was different. Her eyes were different. Through the tear-brimmed eyes he saw what he knew would happen.

"I hate you," she whispered in a voice that was so deadly quiet and disconnected from her that he wasn't even sure the words had come from her mouth.

But they had. She had said those three words, and she wasn't lying. Every inch of her being hated Daryl, and he knew that she had every right to hate him. But this knowledge didn't make it any easier. Those words stung worse than anything else he had experienced in his life, and his heart broke.

She tried to push away from him again, but Daryl pulled her to his chest. "I know; I know you hate me. But you know I had to. They needed to know Beth, we couldn't just keep this between us anymore."

And for the second time that day she broke. But this time was different. She wasn't just crying because of what had happened to her, she was crying because the one person she had trusted had betrayed her. Daryl rested his chin on her head, and he didn't even try to stop the tears that began to flow from his eyes.

**Author's Note: So the secret is out...Daryl finally told them the truth about what happened. He didn't want to, but he finally realized that he had no other choice. And Beth ended up hearing the whole thing! She knows that Maggie and Rick know what happened, and she knows that Daryl broke the promise he made her. She's hurt, and she hates Daryl for what he did. And Daryl hates himself for what he had to do. I wasn't sure if I was going to have Daryl cry or not, but when I was writing the chapter it just felt right.**

**Tell me what you think?**


	20. Chapter 20

Ch.20

Everything around Maggie seemed to stop. The breath was sucked right from her lungs, and she swore that she felt her heart stop beating for the briefest of moments. What had Daryl just said? For a moment she thought that she had heard him wrong, or that this was all just a bad dream. She was praying that this was a bad dream. She was praying that she would wake up any minute now and everything would be back to normal. But she knew it wasn't.

Everything made sense. The way Beth had been acting, it all made sense now. She knew that something was wrong, but she could have never imagined anything like this. Beth was being moody, she had been isolating herself from everyone, shying away from people's touch. And then today, when she killed that walker, Maggie had never seen someone full of that much anger.

She had gone up to Beth's room to check on her. She was planning on talking to her about what had happened, but she paused at the top of the steps when she heard sobbing. Walking to Beth's room she found her sister, trembling and clinging to Daryl on the bathroom floor, his jacket wrapped around her. One look at Daryl told her that she wasn't needed. She didn't say anything; she just walked away and let them be.

Daryl ran out of the room, and Maggie paid little attention to his absence until she heard screaming. It was Beth. She rushed out of the room, towards the noise. They were outside, and so Maggie went out onto the porch, Glenn and Rick following behind.

Daryl was holding onto Beth's wrist, and she was doing her best to break free, but he wasn't letting go of her. Even from this far away Maggie could see that Beth was crying, she could tell by the way the sun glistened on the wet streaks running the length of her face. She wanted to run out to her sister, but she was frozen on the porch, forced to watch the events unfold in front of her.

She couldn't make out what they were saying. Neither of them was yelling anymore. But she saw Daryl pull Beth to his chest and wrap her securely in a hug. They stayed there like that for a few minutes before Beth pulled herself free and turned back to the house, stomping past everyone on the porch without even glancing at them.

Everyone walked back inside, including Daryl. Nobody said anything. Maggie was trying to sort through her thoughts, they just seemed to be all jumbled, and she wasn't thinking straight.

"Maggie, are you alright? What's going on?" Glenn asked, and she could tell by his tone that he was worried.

"It's Beth. She-she was…" Maggie couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't bring herself to admit what had happened to her sister.

"What happened to Beth?" He asked, looking around.

By now Carol had entered the room. Glenn was looking at Maggie for an answer, but she just looked away. His answer came from someone else in the room.

"She was raped," Daryl said.

"What?" Glenn asked, sounding as if he didn't believe him. "No, we would have known."

"Promised to keep it a secret," Daryl mumbled before exiting the room.

Glenn turned back to look at Maggie. "Maggie." It came out as more of a question than a statement.

Maggie nodded her head, and she saw a wave of sadness wash over Glenn's face. She knew that Glenn had come to see Beth as his own family, as his little sister, and she knew that this news would hurt him as much as it was hurting Maggie. Maggie went over to sit on the couch, and Glenn followed, reaching out and grabbing her hand in his and squeezing it tightly.

"What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say to her?"

There was a silence in the room, nobody knowing how to answer her.

"How is she ever going to get past this?"

After another minute of silence, Carol finally spoke. "Beth's strong, stronger than any of us give her credit for. She'll get through this. She just needs you right now."

Maggie sat there for a while longer, Glenn holding her hand. She was trying to figure out what to do. Everyone else had left the room. She eventually came to her senses.

"I need to go and talk to her," she said, standing up.

Maggie made her way to her sister's room. Beth's door was closed. She thought about knocking, but decided to just walk right in. She had been planning out what she would say. She was going to ask Beth if she wanted to talk about it. She was going to ask her what she needed. She was going to promise her that everything was going to be ok. But when she walked in Beth's room she didn't do any of those things.

Beth was sitting cross-legged on her bed, her hands resting limply in her lap. Her head was turned down, and Maggie could see a tear drop from her face and land on her hand. Without thinking, Maggie went over to her sister and enveloped her in a hug. Beth tensed under her, but when she eventually relaxed, she eased into her embrace and started crying even harder.

Maggie didn't even realize it, but she started crying, too. She felt horrible that she hadn't noticed what was wrong with Beth sooner. She felt horrible that she hadn't been able to do anything. She felt horrible that Beth felt like she couldn't tell her the truth.

Eventually they both stopped crying, but Maggie refused to let Beth go. She wanted to believe that she could just hold her and everything would be better. She wanted to believe that she could hold her and all of her pain would just magically dissolve.

After what seemed like an eternity of holding her, but at the same time didn't feel like long enough, Beth backed away from her. She was avoiding any eye contact with Maggie, and it seemed like she was trying to push herself as far away from her as possible.

"Beth?"

Beth didn't respond. She didn't even look to Maggie.

"Beth?" Maggie asked again, this time reaching over and grabbing her hand.

"I'm so sorry, Beth. None of this should have happened to you."

Beth remained silent.

"I need you to know that I'm here for you, and that you can talk to me."

Beth didn't answer, but she squeezed Maggie's hand, and Maggie squeezed back.

**Author's Note: First of all, I want to thank you all...over 100 ****reviews! Wow! I am so happy right now, and so grateful to everyone has reviewed, favorites, followed, or just read. You are all amazing!**

**Second, this chapter was all from Maggie's POV. I thought that it was kind of important to get her reaction and see what she was thinking after finding out the truth about what happened to Beth. She's relieved that she finally knows what happened, but she's also angry that Beth felt like she couldn't tell her. How is she going to help Beth get through this?**

**So I'm at a bit of a dilemma for the next chapter. I can't decide if I want it to be from Daryl's POV, Beth's POV, or a combination of the two. I would love to hear what you think!**

**And, for any of you that also read my other story, "A Fighting Chance," I may not get a chance to update this weekend. My sister is up for the weekend and we are in the midst of planning her wedding! But, I promise to update as soon as possible!**


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